Ben Allen: Meeting His Constituents from Nick Weiss on Vimeo.

Thank you for visiting my website!

Santa Monica and Malibu have long had excellent public schools with deep community support.  But we can do still better.  As a board member, I want to ensure that our shared school district puts all of our students first, so that each one of them may succeed, regardless of their backgrounds and educational needs.  We must also work harder to reach out to and engage with parents and civic leaders.  And we must make a firmer commitment to transparency and open communication with the community. I’m proud to have the endorsement and support of our teachers’ association and of most of our community’s most respected leaders and organizations.

I am a K-12 alum of our district schools, was Samohi Student Body President (and a mildly ferocious Captain Hook in Peter Pan), and have experience both with teaching and in educational law and policy research.  My mother was a longtime public high school teacher, my father is a professor at UCLA, my young niece attends Edison Elementary, and my sister-in-law teaches at Santa Monica High School and serves on the District-wide PTA Council. I currently serve on the School District’s Financial Oversight Committee, and have just completed a fascinating and productive term as a University of California Regent.  I have also been a press secretary on Capitol Hill, as well as having worked in international development in Latin America. This fall I move to a position as an attorney at the Santa Monica offices of Bryan Cave LLP.

Having served on several high-level public education leadership search committees (most significantly the searches for the UC’s new system-wide President, and the new Chancellor at UC Riverside), I know first-hand the importance of finding a superintendent of the highest caliber, one who can build a consensus and bring people together. The Board must then empower her/him to lead our school district forward.

I hope that my experience, energy, enthusiastic commitment to public education, and generational perspective will be especially helpful as the District faces the many challenges ahead. Please feel free to contact me with suggestions, questions, or comments: ben@benallen.net

Best,

Ben