2015 is off to a strong start for Advocates for Malibu Public Schools, which has successfully raised the money needed to fund a critical district separation study.
The organization spent the last several weeks of 2014 rallying supporters to help raise $75,000 to be matched by a single-gift donor, bringing the total to $150,000.
The money will now be used to pay for a WestEd study examining the nine criteria of a potential school district separation. AMPS hopes to present findings to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in July. That same month, “AMPS will further submit a legal petition for separation signed by 25% of the electorate to demonstrate support for the separation,” an announcement from AMPS stated.
A signature-gathering campaign is under way for the petition as well.
AMPS has spent the last several years pushing for Malibu to be granted its own public school district. Up until AMPS President Craig Foster won a seat last November, Malibu had not had a representative on the Board of Education since 2008.