The reduction of Malibu High School’s capital project funding has sparked cries for a Malibu school district. A Santa Monica resident says Malibu has been treated fairly because it only lost its middle school project, and the plans for the middle schools in Santa Monica were also eliminated.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
The growing tension between some Malibu and Santa Monica parents will likely strengthen over the next several days when two important Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District meetings take place that include the contentious issue of Measure BB capital project funding on their agendas.
Measure BB is the $268 million facilities improvement bond approved by voters last year. The bond is being used to pay for the first phase of the school district’s 20-year Facilities Master Plan. The district says $149 million of the bond money can be used for this first phase because of expected inflation over the next eight years during the construction.
Since the summer, the district staff had been recommending $27.5 million for Malibu High and from $38.4 million to $44.4 million for Santa Monica High School. But on Oct. 15, just three days before the Board of Education voted on the official distribution, the Measure BB Advisory Committee endorsed a plan submitted to it by a newly formed group known as the Coalition for an Excellent Samohi Campus. This plan reduced Malibu High funding by $14 million and increased the Santa Monica High funding by nearly $20 million. It also raised the totals for Santa Monica’s Edison Language Academy ($4 million to $24 million) and Olympic High School ($2 million to $6 million). Twelve million dollars was designated for districtwide technology improvements and another $38 million was left undesignated, with the use of that money to be determined after further assessment. The Board of Education accepted that plan rather than its staff recommendation at its meeting on Oct. 18.
At Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, Malibu parent Colleen Baum will be allowed 15 minutes to plead her case for the board to reverse its decision.
“Something went wrong [with the Measure BB process],” Baum said in an interview last week. “This will give me the ability to direct the conversation so that my concerns are discussed.”
Several Malibu parents said the Oct. 18 Board of Education vote was unfair not just because Malibu High’s funding was reduced, but because they believed the staff recommendation, which had come about after a series of public and private meetings, had been “hijacked at the 11th hour.” Also, some people considered it a conflict that the Samohi Coalition co-chairs are Judith Meister (who is a member of the BB committee) and Laurie Lieberman (whose husband, Chris Harding, is on the BB committee). Baum has called for Lieberman and Harding to step down for violating the school district’s policy that advisory committee members must make their recommendations “from a neutral party point of view.”
Baum’s sentiment has been echoed by Laura Rosenthal, a Malibu resident who sits on the BB committee. “They’re there to represent the entire district, and obviously they have another allegiance,” she said last week.
Harding and Meister said they have no plans to resign.
“The notion that those who have a stake in this district can’t serve on a committee is ridiculous,” Harding said on Monday. “If that were the standard, there wouldn’t be that many people serving on the BB committee.”
Harding has made it no secret that he believes a significant purpose of Measure BB, approved by voters last year, was to reduce what he calls “a huge disparity” between the cities’ two main high schools.
“When I walked the Malibu campus, I was pleased to see they have a very good campus,” Harding said. “The students deserve that. Santa Monica deserves the same or comparable facilities. The disparity between the two schools is a very troubling one to me.”
Harding added that he believes no money was actually taken away from Malibu High, since the $14 million eliminated was designated for the construction of a middle school building. With the funding axed for Santa Monica’s John Adams and Lincoln middle schools, Harding said the two cities are receiving the same treatment. “Why is it that a few disgruntled [Malibu] parents fail to understand they were treated in the same way the middle school parents were treated in Santa Monica?” Harding asked.
However, those Malibu parents say the comparison is unfair because Malibu High is an integrated campus of high school and middle school students, with middle school children sometimes taking courses in classrooms considered high school rooms and vice versa. Kathy Wisnicki, a Malibu resident who is the president of the school board, sided with that concept at the Nov. 1 board meeting. “Because we do have sixth-graders taking classes in the same buildings as 12th-graders, it’s not possible to earmark funds designated just for high school,” Wisnicki said.
During the meeting, Wisnicki asked the district staff to come back with a new recommendation after considering that Malibu High is a middle school and high school campus. But she was unable to get any of her fellow board members, who all reside in Santa Monica, to side with her. With the item not being on the agenda, she was limited in her ability to persuade her colleagues. Wisnicki’s request was instead designated for the BB committee, which meets for the first time in Malibu on Monday.
Meanwhile, a group of Malibu parents are meeting privately about possible litigation on this issue and the creation of a Malibu school district, something that has been discussed several times over the years but never come to fruition for various reasons.
Baum said with her agenda item on Thursday, “My real goal is not to have a lawsuit and to provide the board the opportunity to make the right decision.” But, she said, regardless of how this issue pans out, the creation of a Malibu school district is still something that is necessary.
“The only thing that this issue [Measure BB funding] did was highlight another example of why it’s time for Malibu to have local control of the programs and facilities here,” Baum said. “We’re very different. The time has come for our own school district. It’s evolution.”
Thursday’s Board of Education meeting will take place at Santa Monica City Hall, located at 1651 16th St. The start time is 5:30 p.m. The BB committee meeting will be held at the library on the Malibu High campus, located at 30215 Morning View Drive. The session is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.