Local students will be heading to Malibu Elementary School for the 2019-20 school year.
The name was announced in an email to the community from Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Malibu Pathway Director Isaac Burgess on Tuesday morning, May 28. Malibu Elementary School will combine the student populations at Juan Cabrillo Elementary School and Point Dume Marine Science School. Students in eastern Malibu will still attend Webster Elementary School.
A survey was sent out to teachers, staff, families and others to select a name in mid-May. Then, the Malibu Naming Task Force established a short list of five names, which was then ranked “from most liked to least liked” by those directly involved in the schools. Teachers were given a stronger vote—“weighted by a factor of three,” per the school district.
The list of five included John and Amanda Ballard Elementary School, Ocean Elementary School, Surfside Elementary School and Westward Elementary School.
John and Amanda Ballard, former slaves, were pioneers: The couple mark the first African Americans to settle in the hills of Malibu. A peak in the Santa Monica Mountains area, previously referred to by a racial slur, was officially changed to the Ballard Mountain a decade ago.
Ocean, Surfside or Westward elementary would have referred to the school’s location near Westward Beach.
According to Burgess, approximately 60 percent of votes went to the Malibu Elementary School name.
The process comes after the original proposed name—Malibu Ocean Elementary School—with a narwhal as a mascot as well as green and blue school colors was met with complaints from local parents.
Though some parents pushed for the school to retain the Point Dume name, Burgess and current PDMSS-Juan Cabrillo Principal Patricia Cairns said “any combination or derivation” of the two school names would not be considered in a previous email.
The name will be official once the SMMUSD Board of Education votes on approving the name at its May 30 meeting.
The staff and students in the combined school will choose the mascot and colors under the direction of the school’s new principal, Chris Hertz, in the fall.