The official process to trigger the creation of an independent Malibu school district has begun.
City staff last week submitted paperwork requesting a self-governed Malibu district straight to the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) for review.
Since the Board of Education has not made a final, conclusive vote on separation, going straight to LACOE is one strategy Malibu has in order to clear the path on the lengthy process to separate from Santa Monica—though stakeholders stressed the importance of getting the Santa Monica-based leadership on board.
Last Monday, the Board of Directors of Advocates for Malibu Public Schools, better known as AMPS, requested council begin the formal process.
In a letter sent to council and read at the meeting by AMPS President Christine Hovest, the group acknowledged the process of creating an independent district “remains uncertain and the conclusion elusive,” and it was finally time for action.
“Advocates for Malibu Public Schools is requesting that the Malibu City Council, on behalf of all the residents and with the best interests in mind of all the students of the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, submit their already unanimously passed … resolution for ‘unification’ … to the Los Angeles County Office of Education,” Hovest read, also asking council to submit the nearly 3,000 signatures gathered in favor of the process.
“I’m glad the city has finally sent out petitions to Los Angeles County, that the signed petitions from residents will also be sent and that the process has begun,” City Council Member (and longtime independence supporter) Laura Rosenthal told The Malibu Times. “I hope that the school board sees the value in that soon.”
Malibu’s only member on the Santa Monica-based board of education, Craig Foster, agreed the move straight to LACOE could end what appears to critics as a stall in moving a separation forward.
“We’ve been at this seven years,” Foster described. “We’ve had the amazing work of the [negotiation committee] and the consultants that supported them. We have looked at this incredibly hard as a collective group and we are at the point where we can and should make a decision.
“Bringing LACOE in is a way to help us move this process forward,” he continued. “LACO will help us come to a decision one way or the other. Ideally, they will help us to complete our negotiated settlement, but failing that it starts the clock on Malibu’s independent effort for separation.”
The city’s move to regulatory involvement with the County Office of Education bypasses the board of education’s final stamp of approval in order to push forward Malibu’s resolution to form an independent school system.
“Bringing them in strengthens the project. It gives focus to the negotiations we’re doing now, holding them to a higher standard of collaboration and deep thinking and we’ve been asked by several school board members in Santa Monica to move forward for exactly these reasons,” Foster said. “They’re looking for the oversight—the insight—the seriousness of effort to work to resolve our current negotiations successfully. That’s what this is about. We’re so very close to a moment where we could finalize this deal.”
Rosenthal—also a member of the negotiation committee—added: “We all know that we have the greatest chance for success if we work with the school board and we all do this together. That’s what we all want to see. That’s why we’ve been working so hard with them. But, it’s been taking a really long time and we might as well start LACOE looking into this while we are finishing up the work we’re doing with the school board.”
Although the school board did vote in principle to allow for what is known as “unification,” or the establishment of a Santa Monica Unified School District and a Malibu Unified School District, the board clarified the districts must “serve their respective communities and provide the best educational opportunities for their respective students, as long as it can be accomplished in a manner that assures the Board of Education that there will not be a negative impact on the financial condition of the remaining SMUSD.” This has meant months of tedious untangling of numerous properties and funding formulas. Some critics in Malibu have charged Santa Monica with stalling the process by fighting for every penny it can while school board members have repeatedly asserted their obligations to their constituents to provide the best education possible.
Meanwhile, last Wednesday, the Board of Education voted to hire a consulting firm, School Services of California, that the negotiation committee had previously used for a peer review. The company will report back by Sept. 30. Schools Superintendant Dr. Ben Drati will then have a chance to study the review and comment—hopefully by Nov. 2, when a board of education meeting is scheduled in Malibu.
When the Los Angeles County Education Board begins its investigation into the breakup of the school district, there will be a one-year time limit for public comment and review.
