The recommendation heads to the Board of Education for discussion on Thursday.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
It was another close vote, but this time the Measure BB Advisory Committee voted in favor of allocating bond money for the $14 million middle school project at Malibu High School. At its meeting on Tuesday evening, the committee voted 7-5 to allocate $42 million of Measure BB money to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s middle schools, with $16 million going to Lincoln Middle School and $12 million for John Adams Middle School.
The Board of Education will discuss the recommendation at its meeting on Thursday, and it will likely take a vote at its March 13 meeting. Several school board members voiced their support for middle school projects, including the two-story wing at Malibu High, during a meeting last month, but it is not clear whether they will support allocating the money now, or wait to do so later.
This is the second time in a little more than a month the BB committee has voted on the matter. At its last meeting, the committee voted 7-6 to support middle school projects, but to wait on allocating funding until later this year when there would be a better idea of the true cost for the proposed projects that have already been funded. The dissenters at Tuesday’s vote used the same argument.
“Making promises that in June we’re going to find out we can’t keep… it will mean we will have to cut back the scope of projects or what we will have to do is cannibalize projects and not do some of them at all,” said Gleam Davis, co-chair of the committee and a Santa Monica resident.
Committee member Laura Rosenthal, a Malibu resident, told Davis after her comments that by her logic the committee should recommend withdrawing the $111 million of Measure BB money that has already been allocated for district projects.
Rosenthal and Malibu resident Larry Gray, who made the motion for the vote, resisted attempts by other board members to amend the motion that the allocation of the money would be dependent on what the costs of the projects are determined to be in the summer.
Gray answered with a simple, but strong “no” when asked about amending the motion, while Rosenthal said, “My fear is the middle schools will never get the money.”
The Measure BB allocation issue has been a lightning rod since October when the Measure BB Committee, after being lobbied by a newly formed Santa Monica High School parents group (which included one member of the BB committee and another BB committee member’s wife), voted to reduce the school district staff-recommended allocation of $27.5 million for Malibu High School to $13.5 million and voted to raise the amount allocated for Santa Monica High School by $6 million, along with some other adjustments. The Board of Education later that week accepted the committee’s recommendations.
The justification for reducing Malibu High’s funding was that its middle school project was being eliminated, along with middle school projects in Santa Monica. But this did not make sense for many Malibu residents who said Malibu High is an integrated campus of middle school and high school students and there were high school projects connected to the middle school project.
Supporters of cutting the middle school projects also argued that since some Measure BB money was being left unallocated, to be designated later, there would be an opportunity for the middle school projects to be funded at a later time.
Malibu residents at several meetings after the Board of Education decision pleaded with the school district leaders to change their minds. But a majority of the board refused to do so each time. This created a sense of disenfranchisement for many in Malibu, triggering an increased interest in Malibu forming a separate school district. It also threatened the school district parcel tax that was on the ballot earlier this month, although the tax did pass.
Several Malibu residents have said they are optimistic the board members will reverse their October decision when they vote in March based on the supportive comments for middle school projects made by the board members in January.
Thursday’s board meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. at Santa Monica City Hall, located at 1685 Main St. To access the agenda, go to www.smmusd.org.