Letter: School Decisions

By The Malibu Times · Sun May 20 2018

This is a letter, written on April 30, addressed to Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati.

Thank you for having the April 26 meeting regarding the proposed realignment of Juan Cabrillo students to Point Dume Marine Science School.

There were many great points brought out, including having our children, teachers and administrators free from toxic chemicals as well as future state-of-the-art learning—both of which are needed for the future.

I thought the meeting was called in haste and not enough notice was given to the Point Dume community. I received a flyer in my mailbox the day of the meeting and noticed information on the meeting in our local papers that are delivered on Thursday. This is not enough notice and I suggest you call for another meeting with more notice to the Point Dume residents.

Also, the city had a public safety town hall meeting that was at the same time as the Point Dume meeting.

I would like to make the following points and questions:

• I live on Dume Drive, a few houses from Grayfox. I am out on Dume Drive all the time. Parents are always in a hurry in the mornings and afternoon, exceeding speed limits. The speed sign on Dume Drive near Heathercliff slows down cars that then pick up speed from the speed limit sign to the stop sign at Grayfox. 

• There needs to be a very complete study of speed and the overburden of cars on Dume Drive as well as all of the Point Dume streets. I believe Malibu did such a study a couple years ago.

• Bussing may help, but [I’m] not sure. One-way streets?

Other:

• How would such a decision affect the separation of the districts?

• How would such a decision affect costs to Malibu and residents?

• Most important: How will such a decision affect special education students and services?

• I would like to hear from special education teachers, servicers and parents on this.

• How do parents, teachers and administrators feel about such a move? Will it be too crowded? What’s the effect on class sizes and learning?

Thank you for considering my points above. The main concerns should be learning, free from toxins and safe traffic.

As you know, haste makes waste, so let’s get this right.

David M. Kramer