The following was a letter sent to Superintendent Sandra Lyon and the Santa Monica/Malibu Unified School District
Dear Mrs. Sandra Lyon,
Parents recently received an email asking us to notify the district if their child is attending a Malibu school next year for planning purposes. Before many of us can decide to entrust our children in your care, we are interested to know who will be taking over the many leadership and teaching positions that are now vacant.
This email also insinuated that many Malibu families are moving from Malibu and that is why there is a decline in student enrollment. You know this is just not true. At this point, parents have serious and justifiable concerns with the decisions and actions of SMMUSD over the past four years and that is the prevailing reason for enrollment decline at the Malibu schools, not because families are moving out of the area. Parents have made other choices to educate their children. A safe environment along with great leadership and exciting, qualified teachers is at the top of our priorities. It is the responsibility of the district to provide the information necessary for parents to make qualified decisions on who is educating our kids along with providing them a safe environment that complies with state and federal laws. With the loss of our principals, loss of key personnel and loss of key teachers, the parents would like to know who will be educating our children next year.Â
Being able to send our kids to our local schools with educational excellence and a safe environment free from any toxic exposure is our goal as a community. Nothing is more important than protecting our children and their right to a great education in an environment that will not jeopardize their health.Â
Thank you in advance for responding promptly to our community on who will be hired to educated our children.Â
Jennifer deNicola