Your move, school board.
In just 10 weeks, Advocates for Malibu Public Schools (AMPS) has collected the signatures of over 4,500 residents of Malibu and the surrounding area, with some estimates bringing the total signatures collected to about 5,400 (before screening for double-signers, illegible names and incorrect addresses).
“This signature-gathering effort, like the Malibu City Council resolution, has been met with overwhelming support,” AMPS COO Manel Sweetmore said in an email sent to School District Board Members on Nov. 1. “AMPS has now confirmed that more than 25 percent of the registered voters have signed the petition, indicating their support for unification of a Malibu Unified School District.”
Malibu City Council approved an official council petition for district separation back in September of this year. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Board of Education, on the other hand, will not touch separation with a 10-foot pole, it would seem, with the issue not mentioned during its last meeting on Nov. 5 in Malibu.
AMPS made a public announcement this week that it had collected more than the required signatures necessary to send a petition to LACOE, the L.A. County Office of Education, requesting a study into Malibu’s bid for a separate school district. The petition called for signatures from 25 percent of Malibu registered voters.
“AMPS has exceeded its goal of 25 percent of the signatures of registered voters, so thank you to everybody who has signed the … petition to put separation on the ballot,” AMPS President Karen Farrer told City Council at their Monday, Nov. 9 meeting.
Add this to the September Malibu City Council petition for district separation, and AMPS now has gone above and beyond the necessary steps to petition for district separation. The only remaining petition would be an “icing on the cake” gesture from the SMMUSD Board of Education, but AMPS leaders are not holding their breath.
“Despite the understandable impatience of the residents, we remain committed to working cooperatively with the Board to present a petition from the Board to the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization, to allow the voters to decide this important issue,” Sweetmore’s letter stated.
“Though we remain committed to working cooperatively, we feel obligated to respect the desire of our community and its elected officials to move the process forward,” Sweetmore added. “Therefore, both the Malibu City Council Resolution and the voter petition will be sent to the Los Angeles County Superintendent within the next three weeks.”
If Sweetmore’s schedule remains, the petition could be sent to LACOE as early as Nov. 21.
“We can’t wait forever for the school district,” Farrer told Council monday. “We’d very much like to have their partnership in this process, but if we don’t, we’ll be going ahead.”
Mayor Pro Tem Lou La Monte expressed support for Farrer at the meeting.
“Good luck with getting it on the agenda, and if you do get it on the agenda, let me know, because I would be happy to go down and testify on your behalf,” La Monte said.
District regulations would not allow a decision on sending a petition from the Board of Education to LACOE until the Dec. 10 SMMUSD Board Meeting in Santa Monica, but School Board Member Craig Foster said there’s still a chance the board may be open to agendizing the item.
“I think we have reached a point between the communities where we have a mutual interest in working together in order to find ways to go our separate way,” Foster said. “A discussion on a resolution in support of sending separation to the voters will be a very productive step forward.”