After the creation of separate School Facilities Improvement Districts for the Santa Monica and Malibu communities, the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District will now seek an election in both communities to seek approval of bonds to improve the respective community’s school facilities.
At the upcoming July 19 Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District board meeting, SMMUSD will likely approve the plan to hold elections to approve the bonds.
According to the agenda item report, the district “has undertaken facilities studies, and has determined that critical facilities improvement needs need to be addressed and SMMUSD needs to find a funding source in the very near future.”
The District will present bond measures to voters, one that supports construction/facility upgrades in Malibu and the one that supports the same in Santa Monica.
Santa Monica’s prospective general obligation bonds to be issued and sold in this bond measure would come out to the maximum principal amount of $485 million while Malibu’s would be $195 million.
This money would solely be used for construction, reconstruction, and replacement of school facilities, including the acquisition or lease of school facilities, and not for any other purpose, such as staff salaries or other school operating expenses.
November 6 is the date of the statewide general election as well as an election date where local bond measures that provide facilities funding can be placed on the ballot. To appear on the November ballot, adopted Resolutions Calling Bond Elections must be filed to the Los Angeles County Elections office at least 88 days prior to election date.
To call the elections, the proposed resolutions would require a 2/3 vote of the Board.
Rounding out items on the dais include amending the master agreement between SMMUSD and the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation (soon to be just Santa Monica Education Foundation) due to the district split, a Financial Oversight Committee annual report, and updates from the Parent Teachers Association council, Santa Monica Classroom Teachers Association, and the Service Employees International Union.
angel@www.smdp.com
