This letter was sent to the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board, addressed to District Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati.
We have met on a number of occasions and I was at the meeting on Oct. 30, as I have children at Webster Elementary School, Malibu Middle School and Malibu High School. We have been in the district for seven years and throughout this time, even as a newcomer to this community, all I could see was the blatant disrespect and lack of concern from SMMUSD for the Malibu schools.
I needed to send a note to you based on this email that you sent today. Specifically, I am so tired of hearing that Santa Monica will suffer if there is a stop to the unification of the Santa Monica and Malibu school districts. I ask that you simply take a look at your Santa Monica schools and the programs you offer, including language programs. Now, look at Malibu schools, the middle school, the high school, Webster! Not only do we have limited programing compared to the Santa Monica schools, but also the physical state of our facilities is deplorable. This letter is an insult! Santa Monica will suffer? What about Malibu, which has suffered since inception of this money grab—the numbers show this over and over again. It’s like the “Serrano formula,” which took property tax money from Beverly Hills for the Los Angeles school district; Santa Monica latched on to Malibu—good for Santa Monica, not so good for Malibu.
It’s obvious that Santa Monica wants Malibu’s property tax money and even more obvious is how Malibu has suffered (again, look at our schools and programs). This has been an insult to Malibu. For decades to come? What about decades past?
Please stop the “pretend caring for Malibu,” as there has been no concern up until now, now that Malibu is fed up. Put yourself in Malibu’s shoes; enough really is enough.
Jeff Kletter