Local educational leaders will have a lengthy agenda to address on Thursday, taking some items off the calendar as 2024 comes to a close.
That night, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education will be taking on all manner of construction and monetary updates, including the adoption of a school campus plan in the former category and the 2023-24 annual district audit report in the latter.
For the campus plan of Roosevelt Elementary School, Thursday marks the potential adoption deciding to carry out the project as well as certify its final Environmental Impact Report and adopt a Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program. The proposed project at Roosevelt would redevelop and modernize the campus, implemented over approximately seven years in five phases.
Proposals at Roosevelt call for the removal and demolishing of 19 buildings and 12 portables and the construction of six new buildings, including an auditorium, a cafeteria/kitchen and a new library. In addition, renovations would take place in three buildings and the South Courtyard, while sports fields would be replaced and new green spaces for outdoor learning and play will be implemented.
The first phase of the project, which would include the relocation of several Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms, has a completed design with construction ready to commence in June 2025. Construction would be complete by 2027.
Another property-related matter is the approval of Agreement of Purchase and Sale and Joint Escrow Instructions for the acquisition of leasehold interest at 1631-1645 16th St., 1630-1646 17th St. and 902-926 Colorado Ave. The agreement with STG Three Properties, LLC will end the lease the company has with the district properties, allowing the district to flexibly manage the property, including the potential for a district bus yard to move to the Colorado site.
Budgets from both 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscal years will be examined by the board as well, with the audit firm of CWDL completing the 2023-24 financial audits for the district as well as Measures R, ES, SMS and M.
In CWDL’s financial analysis, the firm noted that the district’s General Fund had over $27 million more in revenues and other financing sources than expenditures in the fiscal year ending June 30. The firm attributed this to higher than projected revenues such as increased Measure R funds and an increased RDA (Community Development Funds) property tax. Expenditures were down in 2023-24 in the areas of unspent supplies and textbooks, as well as over $4.2 million in unspent “other operating costs” (covering things like legal, travel, consultants, utilities and repairs).
Finally, the board will look to approve the 2024-25 First Interim Report of the district budget, which is highlighted by $20.43 million of the 2024-24 ending general fund balance added to the 2024-25 beginning fund balance. RDA revenue also increased by $4 million, while increased operational costs were seen via a $814,000 increase in consultants.
