I served as a member of the Santa Monica contingent to the Malibu Unification Negotiating Committee (MUNC). I am proud of the collaborative work we did over approximately 16 months. I did not, however, believe that we would hand our report over to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified District School Board and have them rubber stamp it as final. I fully expected the board to vet the assumptions and conclusions drawn and I understand their need to feel comfortable with the results. This is an extremely complicated issue and is difficult to understand, even for those of us who have spent many, many hours engrossed in it.
Perhaps the biggest misconception out there right now is that the MUNC is being ignored. The MUNC report is over 1,000 pages of research and reports; it consisted of five sections, each dealing with a different aspect of reorganization of SMMUSD. Only one part is still being discussed. The other four areas (asset distribution, bond allocations, liability responsibility and separation logistics) seem to have been accepted as presented. The SSC [School Services of California] alternative and suggested improvements to the operating revenue portion of the MUNC report are both worth considering. SSC provided a couple of valid suggestions to improve the MUNC report, in terms of timing of payments and ease of transition—both of which are legitimate issues. Their recommendation offers an alternative approach to that proposed by the MUNC, which needs to be fleshed out both in terms of results and logistics to see if it is a better plan. Furthermore, extending the SSC formula over a longer period of time, as suggested by the board, may indeed alleviate some of the issues that MUNC was unable to address.
I specifically asked to see a side-by-side comparison of MUNC and the SSC alternative in order for the board and the public to be able to compare “apples to apples” and determine which, if either, is a better solution. I think once we receive that additional information, the path will become much clearer.
I continue to support and understand the need for a separate Malibu school district, if the resultant Santa Monica-only school district is not negatively fiscally impacted. I appreciate the frustration on both sides, but I am asking everyone to tone down the rhetoric and work together to find our way there. I still believe there is a way forward here that can be obtained in a collaborative manner.
Debbie Mulvaney
MUNC Member