Proposal To Split Santa Monica-Malibu Unified Under Review

SANTA MONICA, CA -- A proposal to split the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in two so that Malibu has a standalone district cleared a small hurdle last weekend as the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization agreed that more time should be given to evaluate Malibu’s proposal.

The Committee on School District Organization, an independent, 11-member elected body that studies and makes recommendations and decisions on such matters as forming new school districts, transferring territory between/among school districts and unifying or de-unifying a school district, met during a Sept. 18 virtual public hearing.

"Despite concerns about several of the conditions, and significant indication that fiscal issues would have a negative impact on the Santa Monica-Malibu USD, staff recommends that the County Committee approve moving this proposal forward from the preliminary examination stage ... into its regular review process," a staff report prepared for the committee states in part.

"This would allow the County Committee to engage with the parties and the impacted community, to request specific information that may inform its ultimate decision on the proposal that is not currently available, and to request that staff gather additional information or answer questions they may have that they have not had a chance to inject into the review process to date," the report continues.

The vote to give the proposal additional study time was 8-2, with commissioners Barry Snell and Susan Solomon casting the 'no' votes. Both voted to terminate the Malibu proposal immediately, citing a preliminary report stating that the proposal submitted by the City of Malibu as presently written fails to meet eight of nine conditions. However, the report states several of the failures are due to a lack of available information, not an inherent weakness of the proposal and the Committee said it expected the final report to be definitive.

The nine conditions that need to be met are: standards for enrollment, community identity, division of property, racial equity, cost to the state, educational outcomes, infrastructure costs, property values and ongoing fiscal health.

A vote to approve or deny the proposal is expected to occur in March 2022, after staff has had an opportunity to answer all the unknown questions, Committee chair Cherise Moore said.