Here's What Could Come Next In The Potential SMMUSD Divorce

SANTA MONICA, CA — Divorce isn't pretty. And like most splits, they often take time.

In a contentious meeting Saturday, the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization voted to take additional time to review the Malibu City Council petition to form its own school district from the current Santa Monica-Malibu USD.

It could now take up to six months for the committee to decide whether Malibu should leave the district, which has connected the two Westside communities for nearly 100 years. After that, the committee turns the petition over to the State Board of Education to make a final decision, which could take five years with current wait times and SBE processes.

It's taken years to get to this point, and before the hearing, district officials say they were negotiating with City of Malibu officials about how to properly allow the Malibu portion of the school district to leave and form their own district.

Negotiations started. Then it all took a turn.

"After years of negotiations, school district officials became less optimistic about an equitable departure, as Malibu’s proposals have consistently revolved around an inequitable distribution of financial resources that would cause irreparable harm to students in both Santa Monica and Malibu," the district said in a statement.

It comes down to finances, diversity and equity

Kristin McCowan, Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tem and former SMMUSD student, outlined Saturday why the Santa Monica City Council is opposed to the terms of the proposed separation plan.

"We are opposed to any plan that is unfair or unjust to Santa Monica students and families," McCowan said. "The Santa Monica City Council wants what’s best for all students."

A feasibility study and preliminary report found that Malibu’s proposal did not meet eight of the nine criteria required for viability. A number of factors are included, and the committee cited a declining population in Malibu, affordable housing and that the proposed split could lead to segregation.

Paul Grisanti, Malibu City Councilmember and former mayor, said Malibu is still recovering from the Woolsey Fire in 2018 in the wake of the pandemic. The city lost 700 structures, 400 of which were single-family homes, and a number of families were displaced in the disaster.

“We as a city have come to the decision that it’s time for a divorce,” Grisanti said.

Pamela Ulich, a former city council member in Malibu, also asked the committee to move the petition forward.

"It appears to me that the rhetoric is so loud and the PTSD is so relevant even today," Ulich said, referring to how people in Malibu are still working to move forward after the fire.

"I served on the city council and it really hurts me," Ulich said. "I love Santa Monica. Today I stand for one thing only and that’s healing. And when you make your decision I hope you have an open mind and open heart. We all deserve representation."

Others argue that a Malibu district would lack minority representation.

"Advocates from throughout the region came together and actively organized against Malibu’s proposal on the grounds that it was inequitable and that it would have created a deep racial divide between both communities," the district said.

Denny Zane of MoveLA and former Santa Monica City Councilmember described how separating the district would leave a question about diversity.

"It would leave Malibu a primarily white school district," Zane said.

The projections show the split "would have a discernable impact on the ethnic or racial distribution at both a newly formed Malibu USD and at the resulting Santa Monica USD," according to the report. An independent Malibu school district would be 77 percent white, while an independent Santa Monica school district would be 45 percent white.

"While enrollment for Fall 2021 is not yet known, and enrollment projections into the future for both a resulting Santa Monica USD and a newly formed Malibu USD cannot be made without that underlying data, it is clear that, even on the highest-level analysis, the Malibu USD, if created, will be an entity that is vastly more White than the resulting Santa Monica USD or the current Santa Monica-Malibu USD," according to the report.

And although some Malibu residents argued they need more resources for students learning English as a second language, the report found that an independent Santa Monica school district would end up with less per-pupil funding and a higher proportion of foster youth, low-income families and English learners.

“As a district, we are not optimistic about any major developments occurring during this additional review period as we have been in talks for years with the City and the City of Malibu’s position has remained consistent in seeking an inequitable distribution of financial resources,” said Jon Kean, President of SMMUSD's Board of Education.

“Our district will continue fighting for the students of both communities and urge education leaders in Malibu to inject themselves into the city’s process in order to assist them in understanding why their proposal is flawed," Kean said.

Two cities, one district

In the 8-2 vote Saturday, the committee moved to investigate Malibu's petition to separate the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District into two unique districts. Saturday’s decision does not endorse or approve that petition in any way.

Allison Deegan, regionalized business services coordinator for LACOE, said it would take time for any changes to happen.

"Creating a Malibu USD is a long timeline," she said at Saturday's hearing. "No changes will happen today, and no changes will happen quickly."

The decision came during a public virtual hearing Saturday where Malibu and Santa Monica stakeholders plead their cases before LACOE. More than 50 members of the public spoke about separation during the hearing, reviewing the details of this lengthy and messy school district divorce that has been on LACOE’s plate since 2017.

The City of Malibu and SMMUSD both made their arguments before the County Committee. Malibu’s key claims remain that SMMUSD ignores and mistreats Malibu constituents and that Malibu and Santa Monica are too geographically different to work as a single district.

“Although Malibu and Santa Monica are joined together with this school district, we are not joined together in any other way,” Malibu city council member Karen Farrer said.

Given the more rural landscape of Malibu and the urban sprawl of Santa Monica, Malibu representatives emphasized that the geographical separation between the cities creates many problems, especially in responding to natural disasters. Commenters and representatives of Malibu levied complaints that the Woolsey Fire received a poor response from Santa Monica.

A Santa Monica speaker, Ana Maria Jara, took issue with claims that the city didn't care about their Malibu neighbors and didn’t come to their aid during the Woolsey Fire. Jara countered that she and other Santa Monica community members helped provide temporary shelter and other support.

Malibu City Council Member Karen Farrer and public commenter Scott Dittrich described poor conditions at Malibu schools, including insufficient resourcing for special needs educators and music programming. Due to these issues, enrollment at Malibu schools has rapidly declined, Farrer and Dittrich said.

Kean described a "perfect storm of a declining number of school-aged children, paired with stagnation in housing. Today, Malibu students have 1,099 students enrolled. Not the 12,024 stated by the Malibu City Manager earlier."

Ralph Mechur — a former SMMUSD board member — countered that all district campuses had been renovated through the "window, pain and floor” program, with several million dollars dedicated to each school.

He's been involved with the district for some 40 years.

“Malibu Middle High School has recently opened a new 12-classroom building and a new admin library building,” Mechur added. “Malibu is completing a plan to rebuild its high school.”

SMMUSD emphasized the findings of a preliminary report published earlier this month by LACOE’s Division of Business Advisory Services, which found that Malibu’s petition insufficiently met eight out of nine criteria used for evaluation. The key factor SMMUSD focused on is whether Malibu could meet and sustain the enrollment requirement for an independent district.

Considering a petition so flawed, SMMUSD argued, moving forward is a waste of precious time and resources that should be going toward student education — especially in the aftermath of a pandemic.

“It would be unfair to require the district to continue to defend against a city council petition that is fundamentally and irreparably flawed,” legal counsel for SMMUSD David Soldani said.
“Subjecting the district and its families to more process and more hearings based upon this flawed petition is a waste of the committee and the districts’ time and resources, both of which are in dangerously low supply right now,” Soldani added.

Dr. Ben Drati, Superintendent of SMMUSD, addressed the demographic shift that would occur as a result of the split, leaving an independent Santa Monica school district with a far more diverse enrollment than Malibu and less per-pupil funding. This was all included in the preliminary report from LACOE.

“Sadly, there is a continuing precedent of systemic and structural discrimination in this country that has even touched the educational system in the form of rich, wealthy and predominantly white communities peeling themselves away from bigger and more ethnically diverse districts, while taking the community resources assigned to public education in their region or district,” Drati said. “This is happening all over the nation and in our own backyard with the city council’s petition.”

Public commenters, including a representative of the NAACP, drew attention to discrimination faced by students of color in Malibu schools, referencing a racist incident at Malibu High School last year in which a Black student was threatened by his peers with a noose.

Despite these incidents, Maria Leon-Vazquez, a SMMUSD school board member, added that both high schools — Malibu High School and Santa Monica High School — continue to rank as top high schools in California.

The contentious nature of this process has called all parties’ facts and arguments into question, Deegan said.

“In light of the significant disagreement amongst the parties [to] this proposal, nothing presented to date can constitute definitive information that makes the picture more clear or directs what the county committee or staff must accept or understand as the reality of this situation,” Deegan said. “It is the interpretation of the city, or district, or staff, or consultants or the public. And while valuable and potentially illuminating, it is not the same as objective directive fact.”

What happens next?

Another virtual public hearing on the petition will be held before Nov. 17. Details will be determined at a future date, district officials said.

Within 120 days of the next public hearing, the County Committee will gather data and prepare a feasibility study on the petition, according to LACOE.

Within this 120 day period of creating the feasibility study, the County Committee will decide whether to move the petition forward to the State Board of Education based on the nine criteria that LACOE used in its preliminary report. Should the County Committee approve the petition to move forward to the SBE, SBE will hold a public hearing and decide to either approve or reject the proposal.

Should SBE approve the proposal, the reorganization will go to a local election for the voters to decide.

SEE MORE:

• Malibu School District Separation Still In Limbo
• Santa Monica City Council Asks Committee To Deny Malibu District