SMMUSD Board of Trustees Seats for Malibu
Dear Editor,
At the business round table last Friday morning Craig Foster, our only school trustee rep for Malibu, urged a possible letter-writing campaign to the LA county office of education (LACOE) to hear the petition to redistrict the school district to guarantee two trustees for Malibu.
The petition is permitted under a new state law, SB 442, that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2022. This would allow the county committee to create so-called “trustee areas” or voting districts within the SMMUSD, in accordance with the California Voting Rights Act, or CVRA. The proposed map splits the current district into seven trustee areas, including two districts with shared portions of Malibu and Santa Monica.
Craig reiterated that there is a fairly good chance he could lose his seat in the election this year if this is not heard and granted. That would leave us with ZERO representation once again in Malibu at the school district. And our Malibu schools will suffer.
Please send an email to LACOE in the next few days c/o Anna Heredia at Heredia_Anna@lacoe.edu and
Cc: Craig Foster cfoster@smmusd.org; this is the appropriate person at LACOE to send your letter of support for the hearing and approval of the SMMUSD redistricting in time for the next election. Copy Craig Foster so he can make sure it gets to them. Apparently, Santa Monica has three trustees that live within 500 miles of one another, and that does not represent the district as a whole. They are obviously opposed to this change that needs to be completed according to the law. Creating districts will end their reign.
A majority of two Malibu seats plus two like-minded Santa Monica seats out of 7 would effectively end the continuous unification fight as that majority would then be able to sign off on Malibu separation where the current majority has consistently fought it.
Thanks very much for your help!
Jo Drummond, Malibu