More About Louise

Louise Jaffe and familyPTA

Louise has lived in Santa Monica for 30 years and first became involved in community and education issues as a parent. While her daughters Maggie and Nora were students in Santa Monica's public schools, Louise served as President or Co-president of the Will Rogers PTA, the Santa Monica Malibu Council of PTAs, and the Santa Monica High School PTSA. She continues to serve as the Santa Monica Malibu Council of PTAs Liaison to Santa Monica College and to work closely with PTA and education leaders from Santa Monica and Malibu schools. Louise has been repeatedly honored with PTA Honorary Service Awards and is the proud recipient of PTA's highest award, the Golden Oak. www.smmpta.org

Santa Monica Lifelong Learning Community Project

Beginning with a "Call to Action" in 1997(smllc.org/lllc_background.html), Louise helped create a shared community vision to realize Santa Monica's potential as a model Lifelong Learning Community. This work made her a familiar, well-respected, and well-known advocate for lifelong learning in Santa Monica and resulted in strong working relationships with community and organizational leaders throughout the City. Participants in the Lifelong Learning Community Partnership include the City of Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center, Saint John's Health Center, Venice Family Clinic, Westside Family Health Center, RAND, Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, Santa Monica Child Care and Early Education Task Force, Connections for Children, and Santa Monica College.

Cradle to Career (C2C)

The work and vision of the Santa Monica Lifelong Learning Community Project has largely evolved into and merged with Santa Monica's Cradle to Career initiative. C2C is based on a collective impact model and is a collaboration of the City of Santa Monica, Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, Santa Monica College, and community members who believe that the wellbeing of our children should be the top priority of our city.  Since its inception, Louise has been an active member of the C2C work group.  Recent C2C achievements include the development and release of a Youth Wellbeing Report Card  for the community and a new searchable website bringing together a wide range of local resources.


Community for Excellent Public Schools

Louise is a founding member of the political action committee Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS) and served as Co-Chair with Shari Davis from 2003 to the end of May 2006 when she stepped down to run for the College Board.

Charter Amendment/City-Schools Contract:

During her tenure as co-chair, CEPS gathered 15,000 signatures from Santa Monica voters to qualify a charter amendment that would require the City to increase its funding to our public schools. Just prior to the petition deadline, the City and the School District came to an agreement that has greatly improved funding stability, predictability, and quality for our public schools.

This contractual facilities use agreement between the City of Santa Monica and the school district reset relations. Today, as set in the contract terms, the City of Santa Monica provides SMMUSD with more than $8 million annually and the two government institutions work together closely to ensure our children are offered a high quality public education. The new collaborative and mutually beneficial working relationship is evident in the passing of measures Y and YY which bring additional revenues shared by the schools and the city.


Caravan for Kids

In April of 2005 during stalled and acrimonious state budget negotiations, CEPS partnered with the California State PTA to orchestrate Caravan for Kids. Caravan for Kids coordinated local press conferences up and down the state with a unified message to rebuild California's commitment to education. The two-day event ended with a rally in Sacramento attended by thousands of PTA members and their children. The event garnered powerful coverage by the media and helped set the stage for the defeat of Prop 76 in June of '05. Caravan for Kids News...

The State of Our Schools: How are we doing?

In May of 2006, CEPS and the Santa Monica Malibu PTA Council partnered again to present The State of Our Schools, a report to the community on student achievement and the financial health of the Santa Monica Malibu public schools. The program was presented once in Santa Monica at the new Main Public Library and then again in Malibu. Working with PTA and the school district, CEPS has made this community report an annual event.

A fully engaged member of our community

Louise is a member of or contributor to the following local organizations:
Community for Excellent Public Schools
Connections for Children
Natural Resources Defense Council
KCRW
Meals on Wheels
Red Cross
Samohi Grad Nite
Santa Monica College Associates
Santa Monica College Foundation
Santa Monica Conservancy
Santa Monica Democratic Club
Santa Monica History Museum
Santa Monica League of Women Voters
Santa Monica Lifelong Learning Community Project
Santa Monica Malibu Council of PTAs
Santa Monica Education Foundation
Santa Monicans for Renters Rights
St. Joseph Center
The People Concern
Westside Family Health Center
Westside Food Bank
Will Rogers PTA

Lifelong Learner

Louise has an Ed.D. from UCLA and a BA in Biology from Antioch College. Over the years, she has taken classes at UCLA Extension (and taught there), Santa Monica College, West LA Community College, and Cal State Northridge. Prior to marrying and raising a family here in Santa Monica, she traveled extensively. She works in film, television, and education.

Other Work Experience

Louise is the script supervisor for The Simpsons. For additional film and television credits, please see IMDB.