SMMUSD: district split

The SMMUSD Board of Education (BOE) held a meeting on Oct. 30, 2017 devoted to discussing the issue of a potential district split, where they would weigh out the benefits and downfalls of a potential split. Ultimately the board decided not to vote on this matter at the meeting. “The pros are there would be better government and focus on both communities. The con is change,” BOE Member Craig Foster said.The BOE commissioned a Malibu Unification Notification Committee two years ago, and it created a report this summer that supports the district split. The school board voted unanimously in December 2015 and reaffirmed that vote in September 2017. The BOE voted to split SMMUSD, as long as it doesn’t affect the financial condition of the remaining Santa Monica School District. As of the most recent meeting on Oct. 30, it seems unlikely that the split will go through due to the negative impact it would have on Santa Monica.“That issue poses a serious challenge and may not be one that can be resolved in a manner that would enable separation to proceed.  The Board will be holding a meeting on October 30 to hear a presentation on potential revenue options that could be considered if reorganization were to be pursued,”  BOE President Laurie Lieberman said.A second process is running in parallel to the district split; Malibu City Council has submitted its two-year-old resolution to the Los Angeles County Committee on School Reorganization in hopes of splitting the district independant from any BOE decisions. Consequently, a potential problem has risen for the BOE in separating the district.“The status of a potential split is that the Malibu City Council has filed a petition with the County seeking permission to separate.  The County Committee on Reorganization will evaluate the petition on the basis of specific criteria contained in the Education Code,” Lieberman said. “One of the issues the County Committee is charged with looking at involves whether there is ‘a substantial negative effect on the fiscal status of the proposed district or any existing district affected by the proposed reorganization’.”Although the Malibu City Council has filed for a petition, it does not guarantee that the petition will be approved because the County on Reorganization will have to evaluate the different aspects of the request and the potential impacts of the petition if it was put into place.“This begins an independent county and state level process that could result in a separation dictated by the State of California and independent of any school board decisions,” Foster said.Malibu City Council has taken the necessary steps to potentially become a charter city, which would ultimately be beneficial to the district split. The change would allow for the split to become more feasible without relying on County or school board processes.Malibu City Council is discussing the potential step of becoming a charter city in order to establish a Malibu city charter school system. If the district split does not go through, there could be conflict between electron procedures shared by two charter cities sharing a school district.“This could ultimately lead to a court-driven separation of schools districts, again independent of the County or school board processes,” Foster saidAt the six hour meeting on Oct. 30, district staff and a School Services consultant presented a press release regarding potential financial options available to the district.“Late this month and into November the board will have several meetings to discuss and act, if they desire, based on these reports and the superintendent’s analysis of the impact of unification on the remaining Santa Monica school district,” Foster said.It was projected that if the district split were to happen, Malibu funding would increase immensely, while Santa Monica’s funding would take a significant cut. Keeping the existing SMMUSD school district would give Santa Monica more funding.Discussing Malibu’s petition to separate sparked a heated debate among the board members. Board member John Kean explained that there were also potential benefits of staying with Malibu, but board member Maria Leon-Vasquez did not think they should not consider this, since Malibu had already filed a petition for separation.“Are you kidding me? You’re the one who talked to Lou La Monte and said ‘File it’,” Foster said.The debate caused Foster to leave the room infuriated. The discussion over whether or not the district split is going to happen is still up in the air, although it does not seem like the split would benefit Santa Monica which indicates the split will most likely not go through.