Schools

City of Malibu Could Lead Plan to Form Malibu School District

The Malibu City Council next week will consider a measure to initiate the petition process for forming a Malibu school district.

With the Board of Education next week expected to approve  in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, a plan many Malibu residents say will wreck the city's public schools, popularity of the SMMUSD in Malibu is possibly at an all-time low. But Malibu could soon be leaving the district many residents believe only cares about the city in terms of how much money it can get out of it.

At its meeting next week on Monday, the  will consider a measure "to initiate a formal, multi-entity process" for submitting a petition to the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization about forming a Malibu school district. Mayor Laura Zahn Rosenthal and Mayor Pro Tem Lou La Monte, who sit on the council's School Subcommittee, proposed the measure.

"The goal is to build consensus within a joint-petition group,"  Jim Thorsen wrote in the staff report. "This would involve meetings with officials from SMMUSD and the city of Santa Monica and the city of Malibu to work toward submitting a joint petition to the county committee."

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He further wrote, "This joint petition would present an agreement in principle among these entities in regard to distribution of resources, taxes, facilities, joint-use agreements and other relevant issues."

Other entities would also be involved in the process, Thorsen wrote, including the recently formed Advocates for Malibu Public Schools, CEPS (a Santa Monica-based education advocacy group), the SMMUSD unions and the California Teachers Association.

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Thorsen wrote that "a united front among all the entities will be a key factor in the success of this petition," although only support of a majority of the Board of Education is required to force the county committee to consider the petition. The petition could also be validated if accompanied by signatures from 25 percent of Malibu voters, but that route is not expected to be taken.

Following the submission of a petition, the county committee would determine whether secession (which is formally known by the misleading designation "unification") should go to a vote of the people. A rejection of the petition can be appealed to the state. The county committee or state would also determine whether the election should include only Malibu voters or if the Santa Monica electorate should also be involved.

At this time, the process is not costing the city any money, Thorsen wrote. However, he added, "Council may be requested in the future to consider costs for such needs as consultants, polling, legal advice, etc."

Also, any city staff time used on this issue could be considered a cost to the city because this is time the Malibu officials would not be attending to city government matters.


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