After hours of presentation and discussion, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education came to a decision on Malibu unification at a special board meeting on March 20.
In a 6-1 vote, the board decided to move forward with a 50-year revenue-sharing plan with the caveat that Malibu City Council would have to either withdraw or hold its petition to the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE)’s Committee on School District Organization.
School Services of California representatives were on hand to present how shared revenue could affect a Santa Monica Unified School District and a Malibu Unified School District. School services has been working with the board for almost two years in creating a feasible solution.
Before the presentation, Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati specified that “all concepts still need to be explored in greater specificity.”
Three scenarios were brought before the board.
SCENARIO ONE
Discretionary revenue would be split equally. Because Malibu would end up with more money per student, it would have to pay Santa Monica the difference. Money from property tax, state aid and other local revenues would be equalized for both districts.
Based on predictions, however, Santa Monica’s district would increasingly become dependent on money from Malibu’s “revenue neutrality payments,” leading to a situation where Santa Monica schools would be left financially unstable.
SCENARIO TWO
Only revenues from property tax and state aid would be shared. Currently, the level of other local revenue raised by Santa Monica is higher than that of Malibu; when that is taken away, Malibu’s payments to Santa Monica go up.
SCENARIO THREE
This would combine scenarios one or two. The plan begins with sharing all types of revenue; after five years, it transitions to sharing property tax and state aid revenue in perpetuity.
This would also link the two districts, meaning they would share the benefit and risk of property tax. For example, if property tax fell in Malibu, there would be a direct impact on Santa Monica.
To mitigate “the shock of financial dependence,” as School Services representative Michael Ricketts put it, Santa Monica could look at establishing a trust fund, in which some of money from Malibu schools’ annual payments would go. By building that over a 50-year period, the hope is the cushion would help year 51.
The idea of a trust fund didn’t sit well with many of the board members.
“Where can we justify putting money in an endowment?,” School Board member Laurie Lieberman asked. “How can we rationalize doing that when there would be legitimate needs and demands on that?”
After ruminating on could-haves of the situation, Board Member Jon Kean suggested that another concept brought up by School Services—charter schools—could have a positive impact in Malibu’s path toward independence.
“I believe that a limited independent charter could be a viable path for independence,” he said. Lieberman echoed the statement, stating that it “would be better for speeding up independence,” despite assurances from both that they were not in support of charter school systems as a whole.
Malibu’s only representation, Board Member Craig Foster, opposed the creation of charter schools, emphasizing that his focus was on bettering public schools.
Mayor Rick Mullen and City Council Member Laura Rosenthal attended the meeting as part of the school district separation ad hoc committee. Rosenthal said, “We’re cautiously optimistic for and pleased by SMMUSD’s proposal because it offers a genuine path to creating an independent Malibu Unified School District.”
“The other thing that I think would be good for the folks in Malibu to remember,” Foster later said in a phone call with The Malibu Times, “in the Malibu City Council petition to LACOE, there’s already a structure that transitions revenue from shared to independent that could run for 10 or 20 years anyway.
“So we’re already contemplating a sharing of revenues. So, the real heart of the school district proposal is what happens to revenues 20 years from now, 50 years from now.”
The board voted, with one “no” from Board Member Maria Leon-Vazquez, to have its leaders and Drati reach out to City of Malibu with its proposal.
Advocates for Malibu Public Schools seem to be in support of the decision; in a post on social media, it called the action “historic progress toward independence.”
Rosenthal asked that the item come before a council agenda in the near future, but did not express an opinion on the proposal at the Monday City Council meeting in Malibu.
