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Teacher and families urge accurate data as Monrovia Unified moves toward middle school consolidation
Summary
A Santa Fe Middle School teacher and community members told the board that consolidation decisions must be based on complete, correct facility and capacity data; speakers called for transparency, corrected presentations and meaningful community engagement ahead of planned informational meetings.
During public comment, Stephanie Sparks, a math teacher at Santa Fe Middle School for 23 years, told the board that data presented at a recent consolidation meeting was "skewed, incomplete, and in some cases, simply wrong." She listed alleged errors including incorrect gym/cafeteria capacity, misreported office square footage, omitted science lab and stockroom information, and missing condition assessments and ADA-cost estimates.
Sparks asked how the community can provide informed feedback if the underlying data is inaccurate. Board members and staff acknowledged real-time corrections were made to the previous presentation and that updated materials would be posted before upcoming informational meetings; the superintendent apologized for the error and invited the community to upcoming sessions.
Another public commenter, Abigail Veltman, raised concerns about pool repairs and timelines, noting a reported $320,000 repair estimate and asking who would cover any discrepancy from a previously discussed $200,000 city contribution. District staff later outlined a plan and funding sources during the facilities update.
Board members repeatedly asked for clear, site-level data, principal input and corrected slide decks for future presentations so that the community can evaluate options during consolidation planning.
