Hermosa Beach Schools

Gifted And Talented (GATE) Not Welcome?

Hermosa Beach does not participate in the California GATE Program.  GATE stands for Gifted and Talented Education.

Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, our neighboring communities where students from Hermosa Beach go to High School, both have GATE Programs.  I have heard that Hermosa Beach students who may have been advanced when they were young have a difficult time transitioning to advanced programs in High School.  They are behind because Hermosa Beach does not adequately educate them.

If you have heard similar stories, I would like to hear them.  If you have concerns, let me know.  If you would like to remain anonymous, I will keep your name out of it.

If you see me at Hermosa View or Hermosa Valley, feel free to talk to me off the record.  Or on the record.  I think this is an embarrassing state of affairs, and it needs to be fixed.

Keith Hemstreet

What Kit Bobko Can Do For The Hermosa Beach Schools

Let me give you the punchline first. If Kit Bobko can solve the fiscal problems of the Hermosa Beach City School District, he will be a local hero. He will also show himself to be pro-education, and a roll-up-his-sleeves problem solver.

You can argue that it is not his job. I would counter that it is not my job to write about the subject, nor is it Russ Wilson's job to advocate for the Hermosa Beach schools on his blog Save Hermosa Schools.  It is not politicians' jobs to kiss babies, but they spend a ton of time doing that. The point is that it is a big fat emotionally loaded subject that brings together fiscal policy, taxing and spending, the vague notion of education, and the specific picture of happy children and parents. So what is and isn't his job is of no relevance. His town and current constituency needs this problem solved, and he can earn plenty of praise and positive comments when the press comes to Small Town Hermosa to ask the residents how they feel about their home town boy.

The brilliant State of California makes it very difficult to fund schools except in very specific ways. It is my understanding that the three options are:

1. A Sales Tax which must be passed at the county level, which sounds almost impossible;
2. A Parcel Tax - this would come to a few hundred dollars per parcel for 5 to 10 years - small peanuts if your mortgage is $3000 to $15,000 per year;
3. Donations

So if Kit Bobko wants to show his ability to help his constituency, and his ability to loosen the purse strings of big money donors which is essential in any run for high office, then getting some big private and corporate donors to kick in $5 million to permanently fix the Hermosa Beach City School District budget would accomplish both of those goals. Make it $10 million and I will start a relentless campaign to have a sports field or some kind of school facility or maybe an entire school named after Kit Bobko. That would certainly provide some positive press coverage for a budding United States Congressman.

Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker           Mayor                         peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman    Mayor Pro Tempore  kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos             Councilmember         jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember         kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio    Councilmember         mdivir@gmail.com

Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186

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Kit Bobko Running For Congress

Kit Bobko has announced that he will be running for Jane Harman’s seat which she is abandoning for her own selfish reasons, leaving tax payers to pick up the tab for another election just months after she ran and won for an Nth term. This will be a good test for Kit Bobko who now sits on the Hermosa Beach City Council. We get to find out if he continues to honor his obligations to Hermosa Beach, or whether he is exposed as an opportunist who will now entirely ignore Hermosa Beach while continuing to collect a pay check from us, in favor of focusing on advancing his own political career.

I will be writing about him on a frequent basis because I want him to remember that he has an obligation to this community. Hermosa Beach has significant fiscal problems, and the Hermosa Beach City School District is in such dire straights that its dissolution is being discussed. Education is a very hot topic, and someone who could fix the Hermosa Beach schools lock, stock, and barrel would earn serious consideration from this blogger and voter.

Kit Bobko can impress the voters in Jane Harman’s district by really doing good at home. And he owes it to us anyway, so I will be keeping tabs.


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Hermosa Beach City School District Ratings

If the Hermosa Beach Schools were not worth saving then the people who are trying to save them might just be considered emotional or nostalgic or something other than logical. So let's take a look at the quality of the schools here.

GreatSchools.org ranks schools using a variety of test scores. Their relevant results are:
LAUSD ranking - 4 out of 10
Hermosa Beach Schools ranking - 10 out of 10

2010 Growth API Report
LAUSD - 709
Hermosa Beach City Elementary - 936
Manhattan Beach Unified - 926


LA Times:
LAUSD - why bother
Hermosa Valley Elementary

• API Rank 10/10
• API Index - 937
• Math Proficiency - 86.8%
• English Proficiency - 86.9%

Hermosa View Elementary

• API Rank 10/10
• API Index - 938
• Math Proficiency - 88%
• English Proficiency - 88%

Manhattan Beach - Pennecamp

• API Rank 10/10
• API Index - 957
• Math Proficiency - 94.8%
• English Proficiency - 89.3%

I don't know why there are differences in the rankings reported in different places. Manhattan Beach has five elementary schools, and I did not feel like doing more data entry. Manhattan beach outperforms Hermosa Beach in some rankings, and Hermosa ranks higher in others. LAUSD is a no show. Not worth even mentioning.

From these numbers it is very obvious that Hermosa Beach schools are very good. By one ranking I saw, they were in the top 30 in the state of California. Remember, that California has the 8th largest economy in the world, and Hermosa Beach City School District was ranked 30th in California. Worth saving?

Also remember that the difference between good schools and bad schools can be responsible for as much as a 30% difference in home prices. Are you interested in your kids' future? Are you interested in the future competitiveness and economic success of California and the United States? Do you care if your home falls in value by $150,000 to $1,000,000 ? Then let us all make sure that the Hermosa Beach schools stay solvent, successful, and really really good.

STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING
Thursday, March 3, 2011 @ 6:00PM

Hermosa Valley School, Multipurpose Room
1645 Valley Drive • Hermosa Beach, CA

Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker           Mayor                         peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman    Mayor Pro Tempore  kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos             Councilmember         jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember         kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio    Councilmember         mdivir@gmail.com

Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186

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Would a LA Unified School District Takeover of the Hermosa Beach School Really Be So Bad?

In the last two post I have highlighted studies showing that the quality of the local schools is a huge factor in property values and home prices.  These studies showed the results in different ways.  For example one showed that a 1% change in pass rates resulted in a 1% change in property values, in the same direction of course.  Other studies showed that people would pay a large premium to live in a neighborhood with good schools over living in a similar neighborhood with bad schools.

Then we must ask the question, would turning over the Hermosa Beach City School District to the Los Angeles Unified School District ( LAUSD ) be so bad?  Let me give you some numbers.

The California Department of Education ranks schools using the Academic Performance Index, or API.  There are different indices withing the API, and we will look at the API Growth Index. In 2010, Hermosa Beach Schools earned an API of 936!  This is a great score, ranking the Hermosa Beach City School District in the very top of California schools.  LAUSD earned a score of 709.  LAUSD's API ranking was 24% lower than the Hermosa Beach City School District API ranking.  Does that mean that handing over the Hermosa Beach schools to LAUSD will cause Hermosa Beach home prices to fall 24%?  Maybe not.  Maybe we will get lucky and home prices in Hermosa Beach will only fall by 15%!  Or maybe we won't be so lucky and home prices in Hermosa Beach will fall by 30%.

If we really want to find out what will happen when the Hermosa Beach schools are gutted, all we have to do is nothing.  As it is, the schools district doesn't have enough money, and our representatives don't have the ideas, motivation, or desire to do anything about it.

Home Value Estimate

Get this widget

So enter your address above, or go to Zillow's site ( http://www.zillow.com/ ).  Type in your address, find out what your home is worth today, and play around with some numbers.  Will your home fall in value by $100k?  $300k?  $500k?  Is that OK with you?  Then sit tight, because that is what is going to happen.

Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker Mayor peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman Mayor Pro Tempore kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos Councilmember jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio Councilmember mdivir@gmail.com
Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186

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If The Hermosa Beach City School District Dies, Home Values Will Tank

Every study I have been able to find comes to the conclusion that good schools increase property values.  Furthermore, for those of you like to analyze these things, they find the relation to be causation, not just correlation.  In other words, it is not a coincidence, or it is not caused by the socio-economic background found in good school districts, but it is the good schools themselves that actually increase property values.

Here is an article from Columbia Business Times siting several studies on the subject:

http://www.columbiabusinesstimes.com/8099/2010/05/28/superintendents-view-school-quality-home-value-and-industry/

"Several studies indicate that homeowners would experience a reduction of 2 to 10 percent of the value of their home should standardized test scores drop by 10 percent in public schools. Specifically, the Rand Corporation cites studies that have found that a 1 percent higher average reading or math score in Chicago and Massachusetts was associated with a 1 percent higher property value.

Other studies link the value of homes to the rating of the local school. Values for homes close to elementary and middle schools rated as good or excellent were 20 to 32 percent higher than similar homes located close to schools rated as average or poor. "

If that is not clear enough, that says that when LAUSD takes over the Hermosa Schools, property values will fall by a large amount.  Hermosa Beach schools are currently excellent, the best in the state of California.  And LAUSD is as bad as a school district can be.  LAUSD is not average, it is poor or worse if there is a worse rating.  Will Hermosa Beach home prices fall by 10% or 20% or 30% ?  We will definitely find out if the Hermosa Beach School District is allowed to shut down.

Do you want to roll the dice just for fun to see if your property values fall by $100,000 or $250,000 or $400,000?

According to Zillow, the Median List Price of Single Family Homes in Hermosa Beach is a hair below $1.3 Million:

Hermosa Beach Median List Price

Hermosa Beach Home Values - Interactive chart

So, if home prices fall by only 10% after the handover to Los Angeles Unified School District, then the median list price for single family homes in Hermosa Beach should fall by a mere $130,000.  But, if property values fall by 32% as the study says is possible, then the median list price will fall by $416,000 !  And that is for the median list price.  Remember that half of the homes listed on the market are priced higher than the median by definition!

The house for sale at 2260 Circle Drive is listed for $3,549,000.  This is not the most expensive home for sale  in Hermosa Beach by a long shot.  If this house at 2260 Circle Drive falls in price by 32% after the Hermosa Beach City School District is allowed to die for lack of money, the value of this one house will fall by $1,135,680.

In other words, the value of this one single house would fall by so much that if the school district had that amount it wouldn't be in financial trouble and wouldn't have to consider surrendering to LAUSD.

Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker Mayor peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman Mayor Pro Tempore kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos Councilmember jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio Councilmember mdivir@gmail.com
Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186


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Hermosa Beach Schools Going Bankrupt

Home buyers who are considering buying a home in Hermosa Beach should seriously reconsider.  I have kids, and I therefore know lots of people with kids.  Many of the people I know have moved to Hermosa Beach for the great schools.  What many people probably don't know is that the Hermosa Beach School District is going to merge with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) if some serious funding doesn't appear soon.

According to this article on CNN's site ( http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/22/real_estate/homeguide_schools/ ), homes in cities with good schools may be worth 12% to 25% more than comparable homes with worse schools.  LAUSD is as bad as it gets on Earth and a handover would result in lower standardized test scores.  It is safe to say that if the Hermosa Beach School District is handed over to LAUSD, property values in Hermosa Beach should rapidly fall 10% or 20% or more.  That is an immediate and permanent $100,000 to $250,000 decrease in price on a $1 million home.


Here are a couple quotes from the article:

Education is so important, say agents, that buyers without children should sit up and pay more attention to school."By going in areas where the schools are not as strong, you're essentially cutting out a potential group of buyers," , said RealEstate.com general manager Jeff Lyons.In his hometown, Charlotte, N.C., houses in school zones with higher test scores sold for an average of 12 percent more than similar houses in areas with lower test scores, based on research by UCLA and Dartmouth for sales between 1994 and 2001. That discrepancy is likely to be even greater today.In the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, buyers might pay as much as 25 percent more for a house in a desirable school zone, according to Jill Rudler, a real estate agent with HER Real Living. "I've always looked for property in areas where the schools are improving," she said. "I'm willing to pay a little more in taxes to ensure that my investment is solid.".....
"I was just working with a family looking for property in the $5 million range," said Meris Blumstein, a real estate agent with the Corcoran Group. "They insisted on being in a particular school district. That was their first criterion."

I will be dwelling on this topic until this issue is settled. 


Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker Mayor peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman Mayor Pro Tempore kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos Councilmember jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio Councilmember mdivir@gmail.com
Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186


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