The unification process between Malibu and Santa Monica schools has been delayed time and again, but this time, the delay came from an unforeseen circumstance and not a request by one of the parties.
In late November, the City of Malibu introduced a new feasibility study as part of its 2017 petition to split the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) into Malibu and Santa Monica contingents. The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) Committee on School District Organization had 120 days to review the study, and was to give an update on the petition on January 8.
However, real life got in the way in the form of the Palisades Fire, which began seriously burning acreage the day before the LACOE meeting. The committee moved the update to its February meeting this past Wednesday, and unsurprisingly, the fire’s impacts will push back final review of the feasibility study and petition. Originally with a goal to have final discussion and a vote on March 5, the committee will now have those actions at its April meeting in a location to be determined.
“We have a lot of information to go through,” LACOE Committee Business Advisory Services Coordinator Dr. Allison Deegan said. “We’re being guided by the analysis that’s been done in the past, what’s changed, what hasn’t, what new information in the interceding years is important for the committee to highlight.”
Deegan added that unification is ultimately a state action, and that a LACOE committee approval would be just one step toward a split. If approved, the Malibu petition would go to the State Board of Education, and it could take “years” before reaching the “nebulous” board agenda queue.
“We hear from a lot of members of the community [about] the urgency … of parents and students and looking for remedies, and the district looking to plan and all of that,” Deegan said. “But, in my opinion, absent state legislation … we are multiple years away from anything making a shift in [SMMUSD].”
Attorney Christine Wood, representing Malibu at the LACOE meeting, emphasized that urgency from her constituents, saying while she appreciated everyone’s concern for Malibu residents post-fire, they are “not interested in any delay at all.”
“The residents of Malibu are incredibly eager for this to happen as quickly as possible,” Wood said. “I am fielding daily emails, the council is fielding daily emails … there’s a whirlwind within the community, especially once they begin to rebuild from the fire [and] part of their ability to rebuild, they believe, is very much steeped in the ability to be able to show local control over their schools.”
Before the April hearing, which would need to take place in the first week of the month to accommodate SMMUSD's Spring break, there will be one more public hearing on the petition in March at a location to be determined. The petition will need to pass the nine criteria set by the California Department of Education, including matters of enrollment, finances and community identity.
