By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

June 07, 2010 -- Board of Education member Oscar de la Torre said Santa Monica would benefit if Malibu formed a separate school district. His comments followed last Thursday’s Board of Education meeting at which Malibu City Council member Laura Rosenthal said “it’s time” to give a hard look at separation.

“I think that it would be good for Malibu and for Santa Monica,” de la Torre told The Lookout News. “Then in Santa Monica we can have a laser light focus on closing the achievement gap, which Santa Monica has and Malibu does not have as much.”

De la Torre said it would also help Malibu residents, who are receiving “excellent services” from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD), but want local control. However, he rejected the claims by some Malibu residents that their City is marginalized by not having a representative on the SMMUSD board and by being included in a District they feel does not give Malibu enough attention.

“Residents in Malibu are treated with a lot more consideration than Latino and African-American students and their families of Santa Monica’s Pico Neighborhood,” de la Torre said.

He continued, “I don’t buy it when anyone in Malibu says the school district has not done well by their students. We go far and beyond. I wish I could say the same for Latino and African-American students.”

Rosenthal said she gathered from de la Torres’ comments that he was saying Malibu is getting more than its fair share at the expense of other groups. She said she did not have enough information to comment on that. But she said it is a legitimate feeling in Malibu that its residents are being marginalized.

“There are some board members who are very attentive to what happens in Malibu, but most are not,” said Rosenthal, who said de la Torre is one of those who is not attentive to Malibu. “And Malibu is only looking for its fair share. There are many reasons why the schools in Malibu are good, many of them have to do with the parents and the teachers and the atmosphere at the schools, and the many hours of volunteer time that many families put in.”

She continued, “But that does not mean there are not improvements that can be made. We have very good schools in Malibu, and we fear that they will be eroded with these latest cuts, and we want to make sure that we keep what we need at Malibu High that befits a college preparatory school.”

The concept of creating a separate Malibu school district has come up several times through the years, although no proposal has ever gotten past the initial planning stages.

Two years ago during the height of the dispute between Malibu and Santa Monica regarding facility improvement bond measure funding, a group of volunteers headed by Rosenthal began collecting signatures from Malibu residents to force the County to begin a study on the feasibility of creating a Malibu school district.

However, the group was unable to collect enough signatures. Rosenthal said she lost her volunteer force after people moved on to other things and the bond measure dispute ended.

But Rosenthal told the Board of Education last Thursday that the significantly lower support for the failed parcel tax measure in Malibu compared with Santa Monica was a signal that separation should be examined. (See article: Measure A Breakdown, June 4, 2010)

“I am challenging the board right now, this is the time again to look at separating the districts,” Rosenthal said. “And I think that perhaps Santa Monica is seeing as a result of this why it would help Santa Monica to separate and why it might help Malibu.”

If the board were to approve a resolution for the county to begin a study, that would bypass the need for Rosenthal to collect the necessary signatures. Board of Education member Ben Allen said at the meeting he would be interested in getting the process moving.

Board President Barry Snell said in an interview after the meeting that separation is something “that we need to take a look at and explore the possibilities.” He said he “gets it” why Malibu residents would want their own district.

“It must be quite frustrating that issues that are real sensitive to Malibu, because I and other board members aren’t there on a day-to-day basis, don’t resonate the same way as maybe me dealing with a Samohi issue or dealing with a Will Rogers issue.

Because I’m closer to those schools and I can see it. I run into the parents in the grocery store.”

But Snell said it would have to be a “win-win” situation for Santa Monica and Malibu for him to support separation.

Rosenthal agreed separation needs to benefit both Cities for it to happen. The path toward separation is a long process that could take up to five years, concluding with a ballot measure voted on by possibly only Malibu residents or by all SMMUSD residents. But for now, Rosenthal said, she is “only looking for information.” And getting the Board of Education’s endorsement would allow this to happen at an accelerated rate.

Pam Brady, a Malibu resident and former president of the SMMUSD Board of Education as well as the California State PTA, said her initial instinct regarding forming a Malibu school district is “caution, caution, caution.”

“Smaller isn’t necessarily better during these economic times,” Brady said. “The school districts having the hardest trouble during this economic situation are the smaller ones. And so it has to be very carefully thought out, and I’m sure the people involved would do that.”

“Residents in Malibu are treated with a lot more consideration than Latino and African-American students and their families of Santa Monica’s Pico Neighborhood,”
  Oscar de la Torre