Two Malibu City Councilmembers have been researching with county officials the possibility of Malibu breaking away from Santa Monica to form its own school district.
By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times
In what could be called an acknowledgement of irreconcilable differences, Malibu city officials are exploring what it would take to split Malibu off from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Laura Rosenthal and City Councilmember Lou La Monte received a green light from their colleagues on the city council at its Oct. 10 meeting to research what it would take to create Malibu’s own school district. They have been meeting with the County Office of Education’s Committee on School Reorganization, the agency that would need to guide Malibu through a potential schism in order to form its own school district.
“We’ve been meeting and talking with a county committee on unification,” Rosenthal said this week. “We’re not quite finished with our information gathering.”
Matt Spies, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said there were two avenues available for separation. One is a petition signed by 25 percent of Malibu voters requesting division from SMMUSD. The second option would be for the board of education itself to draw up a resolution authorizing the separation.
“What [Rosenthal and La Monte have] been asked to do when we met with them last week is to have some discussions with the [SMMUSD] district’s administration,” Spies said. “What we told them was, ‘Go do your homework, get everyone in line with the plan that gets presented, so there’s no opposition when this moves forward.’”
With a successful petition of 25 percent of the Malibu voters, the county requires 30 days to verify the signatures. The next step would be the county’s Committee on School District Reorganization. That body would have 60 days to hold public hearings and be required to make a recommendation for or against division within 120 days.
A resolution by the Board of Education (BOE) would eliminate the need for a petition. The resolution would then be subject to the same 120-day period for approval or denial before the reorganization committee as the petition method.
Given that BOE Vice-President Ben Allen has stated in multiple newspapers, including The Malibu Times, that two separate districts makes sense, it is likely Rosenthal, La Monte and others will first attempt to build a consensus with the BOE for a resolution and avoid the petition process.
County staff considers a number of different factors when hearing cases involving the division of school districts, including racial makeup, impact on the quality of education in both the old district and the new one, and the fiscal consequences of the move.
Both Spies and Rosenthal said fiscal matters would play a large role in the outcome.
“One of the things that’s been difficult, at least for the people of Malibu, in the past, is getting financial information from the district,” Rosenthal said. “We’re hoping that will change. Will two separate districts be viable financially?”
Controversy arose among members of the Malibu community and the BOE in 2008 over the allocation of bond money from Measure BB. Many Malibu residents feel the community pays more of that bond money than is proportional for its student population. Splitting from Santa Monica could overburden that community.
“If Malibu were to leave…essentially the population that would be paying off that bond would be smaller,” Spies said.
However, a Malibu school district would miss out on millions of dollars paid each year by the City of Santa Monica to the current school district through joint-use agreements of playing fields, gyms and other school facilities.
Kathy Wisnicki was the last Malibu resident to serve on the BOE, and since her departure in 2008, each subsequent elected school official hails from Santa Monica. Vocal critics from Malibu believe Malibu schools receive a lower priority than those in Santa Monica, despite the fact that Malibu children comprise about 20 percent of the SMMUSD student body. The issue especially came to a head earlier this year, when the drive to turn Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School into a charter school was rejected by the BOE under former superintendent Tim Cuneo.