Hope continues to surge for Malibu residents who are working toward an independent Malibu school district, following a recent Advocates for Malibu Public Schools (AMPS) town hall meeting.
Since July, when AMPS president Craig Foster announced that they were at a “tipping point” with winning favor for an independent district, traction in Santa Monica has only increased, according to leaders.
“We’re really moving to a point of real power in the conversation between the two cities about independent districts,” said Foster, who is taking a leave of absence from this leadership position in AMPS to focus on his campaign for SMMUSD Board of Education this November.
Foster, the only Malibu candidate running for the board, will face stiff competition from Santa Monica candidates. Since Santa Monica’s population far outnumbers that of Malibu, it has been historically difficult for Malibuites to gain a seat on the school board.
Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, a Santa Monica-based candidate, spoke at a Sept. 17 meeting, stepping forward to voice support for, in his words, the “concept” of separation. A longtime professor at Santa Monica College and co-chair of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, he stated that he understands how important the issue is among Malibu residents.
“If it’s truly the will of the Malibu citizens, then I’m on board too, with the caveat that we’ve made sure we’ve crossed all the ‘t’s’, dotted all the ‘i’s’ and that there’s no harm to the school children in either Santa Monica or Malibu,” Tahvildaran-Jesswein said.
According to Foster, Tahvildaran-Jesswein was the first Santa Monican to speak at an AMPS meeting, which could signal increased interest in Santa Monica for the change.
“That was a neat moment, because we’ve never had somebody from Santa Monica speak at our meeting before,” Foster said.
According to AMPS Executive Vice President Karen Farrer, the meeting helped to signify that the current push toward an independent school district has more viability than past attempts.
“We have more resources, more focus, we have the attention of the school district,” Farrer said.
“The school district is looking at this now with an open mind, as opposed to an oppositional point of view, and that’s a big difference from the past,” Farrer added, pointing to this September’s “Welcome Letter” School
Superintendent Sandra Lyon sent out to SMMUSD parents.
In the letter, Lyon acknowledged the efforts of those pushing for an independent district and offered a rough timeline.
“We are told that if the county received a petition in September of 2014, for example, the earliest the new district would be formed would be July of 2017,” Lyon’s letter reads. The statement also stresses that in order for that timeline to be achieved, many variables would have to come together without tedious delays that often arise.
The timeline is also dependent on assessments, including financial assessments made by the district’s financial oversight committee, which according to Foster will be investigating the concept of separation.
“Bad news is, we were hoping to move things along in this calendar year … but now that it has moved to the financial oversight committee, the good news is that will be an authoritative analysis,” Foster said.
According to Farrer, the school board is now taking a sincere look at the division of the district.
“They realize this is something that’s not going away and we all have to work on exploring the feasibility of and taking the steps to make it happen,” she said.
According to school board hopeful Tahvildaran-Jesswein, it is also a crucial point for those hoping to gain a position of power in the district.
“I’m really serious about wanting a spot on the school board, so I’ve been reaching out not just to the people in the city where I live but with people in Malibu,” Tahvildaran-Jesswein said, adding, “The consensus has shifted in Santa Monica to where many of us are advocates or endorsers of the concept.”