INGLEWOOD – Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts sent a letter of “clarification” regarding comments he made during a scheduled Town Hall meeting held April 27.
The mayor addressed a small crowd of residents who are seeking Inglewood Unified School District to not close a beloved, long-time neighborhood school due to declining enrollment.
“The district currently has enough money to operate 10 of the 19 schools they have,” said Butts.
Inglewood taxpayers have approved nearly $500 million in “fix the schools” bonds to address repairs. Voters approved Measure K, then an additional $90 million under Measure GG a month after the district was placed in receivership, and another $240 million under Measure I which passed in November 2020.
On Thursday, April 28, 2022, 10:59:13 AM PDT, Mayor Butts wrote:
On April 27th I spoke at a town hall meeting for District 1. At the conclusion of my presentation, I discussed the efforts of myself and Councilman Dotson to support the IUSD. I spoke of working with the County Administrator to co-author a request of the Governor to consider retiring the outstanding loan that the IUSD pays $1.8 million per year upon. I also discussed seeing if we could get our legislators to structure legislation to provide an additional annual stipend for a period of time in recognition of the additional property taxes generated by the construction of the Sofi stadium and its associated developments and the future property tax receipts generated by the Intuit Dome (Clippers) project.
At the close of my presentation I mentioned the temporary recension of closure of Warren Lane without making clear I was referencing that I was talking about the action that was taken 2 years ago. Some interpreted that as me referring to another recension. I was not. My apologies for being unclear. It is my understanding as of today that the closure has proceeded to the point of the District contacting parents and staff regarding reassignments to other schools. My apologies for not being more clear in my reference to the closure status of Warren Lane.
James T. Butts, mayor
