District, Malibu Reach Milestone On School District Separation

MALIBU, CA — Malibu and the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District took a step forward in the city's proposal to create an independent school district, formally separating Malibu and Santa Monica students. The step, announced Friday, is a milestone in what has at times been a contentious battle over the city’s effort to pull out of the joint school district.

The district and city agreed on a framework to ultimately establish two distinct school districts — the Malibu Unified School District and Santa Monica Unified School District — by July, 2024 at the earliest. Though the separation still has a long way to go, the newly released framework is the first sign in the long process that a successful divorce could be on its way.

The framework, which includes a draft timeline for the separation process and a roadmap to creating a new petition, is still several steps from generating a proposal ready to face county and state authorities. If the plan goes smoothly as outlined, the district and city could be offering a joint proposal to the county by May 2023. After that, it would go to the California Board of Education before reaching voters' ballots in March 2024. The most generous estimate for the creation of two districts is July 1, 2024 — though it will likely take longer.

Malibu has lobbied for an independent school district since 2011. The proposal currently on the table was submitted to the Los Angeles County Office of Education in 2017 and reinstated in 2020. Multiple, heated public hearings and LACOE meetings have moved the petition forward. However, in February 2022 mediation put the petition on pause. Should Malibu and SMMUSD be able to create a mutually agreeable joint petition, "the City's existing petition would likely be withdrawn," according to the city of Malibu.

The framework will help the two parties create specific terms for finances, operational instructions, tax-revenue sharing agreements and more.

The recently released framework comes after months of mediation and meetings between the district and city, according to the district.

“This process we’ve identified reflects countless hours of negotiations and hard work on both sides,” Jon Kean, SMMUSD Board Member, said in a statement. “Unification has been discussed, debated and pursued many times over the last few decades. The commitment by both sides to move forward under this framework represents the first time that we have been able to mutually agree upon an equitable financial model. While there is work left to do, we have reached an historic moment in this process.”

The process will still include significant public input moving forward, according to the framework.

“After years of hard work and negotiations, we finally have a viable framework for an independent Malibu Unified School District,” Malibu Mayor Paul Grisanti said. “We would not be here without the hard work, dedication, and compromise made by the District and the City’s negotiating teams. Now that the Term Sheet has been accepted by both the SMMUSD Board of Education and the Malibu City Council, I am hopeful that the process and framework set forth will guide us to the ultimate goal of two separate school districts.”