The Malibu City leadership is back at the negotiating table with a new offer to split off from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District: $ 40 million in an endowment fund designed to fill the performance gap in six Santa Monica school locations.
The official is actually a reduction of about 20 percent compared to Malibu’s previous offer.
The last “best and final” offer made by Malibu in March included a stipulation that Malibu would “transfer up to 10 years of additional property taxes from the day of the school district separation if the grant per student in Santa Monica is below the current amount Student funding level drops to maintain student funding that Santa Monica students would otherwise have received from the combined district. ”That amount was estimated at nearly $ 50 million in the ten years after the split.
This week’s revised “best and last” deal isn’t too much of a leap, says Malibu’s assistant city attorney Christine Wood, the legal advisor for Malibu’s breakup efforts.
“It’s very similar in dollars. It’s just that the new offering is different in approach – but it’s very similar in dollars, ”said Wood.
The new negotiation amount was approved on a closed point at the Malibu City Council meeting on Monday 10 January.
While the new offer changes the previous “best and last” offer, Wood said that the previous offer “was already on the table for the district … that offer has stood and will remain our” best and last “offer.”
Malibu interim attorney John Cotti said when announcing the amended offer on Monday that the money would be earmarked to flow to Title I schools in Santa Monica.
“The council authorized the School Separation Committee to offer the Santa Monica Unified School District a counter-offer of $ 40 million over 10 years in targeted funding for six Title I schools and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and working with the district to find acceptable mediators, in the hope of mediating before the district committee’s votes in March, ”Cotti announced on Monday at the end of the closed session.
According to the US Department of Education, “schools where children from low-income families make up at least 40 percent of enrollments can use Title I funds to run school-wide programs that serve all children in school to improve performance.” the worst performing student. “
Malibu officials shared a copy of the letter with the Daily Press on Wednesday morning.
“The city [of Malibu] offers to place US $ 40 million in a foundation for the six district schools listed below over a period of ten years, ”the offer letter said. “The foundation capital is shared equally by these schools and administered by the school site councils of the respective school.”
The schools mentioned were McKinley Elementary, Edison Language Academy, John Muir Elementary, Will Rogers Learning Community, John Adams Middle School, and Samohi.
“This offer is made with the confidence that the city can work with the county to close the performance gap at these schools,” the letter said. “The city recognizes and respects the district’s mandate to ‘deliver exceptional performance for all students while closing the performance gap’. With that in mind, the city hopes the parties can reach an agreement to provide an exceptional resource for students in these schools and empower their school communities to seek interventions to fill the performance gap. “
SMMUSD officials said the new offer fell short.
“The latest offering from the City of Malibu is only to reinforce its inability to understand the concepts of justice and funding in our schools,” said school board member Jon Kean. “The implication that all promised students are placed in 6 schools perpetuates the mentality,“ Have vs. Over 30% of students in SMMUSD get a free or discounted lunch and that number will only increase if you remove Malibu schools from the equation . Every school location has students who rely on the spirit of justice embodied through district fundraising and other educational initiatives. The ultimate irony is that all of Santa Monica’s students, not just our Title I schools, will receive LESS funding under the City of Malibu’s proposal than they do today. This offering still leaves Santa Monica students with fewer resources and limited options. You have a permanent offer from SMMUSD to the City of Malibu, which you agreed to before you leave. It encompasses equal opportunities and opportunities for all students in both communities. That is the path that we all have to go. “
The offer was just the latest in a lengthy and often bitter negotiation that began in earnest in 2015, despite parents in Malibu making long efforts to separate their schools from the larger Santa Monica school district.
According to the district, the offers have so far been neglected, especially at the 10-year sunset of the Malibu subsidy. With Malibu taxpayers giving Santa Monica students a disproportionate amount of money, which is about 15 percent of the district’s student body, Malibu’s huge tax base ends up funding about 30 percent of the district’s budget – the district has expressed concern about school program cuts, particularly at Title I schools, are needed immediately to ease the transition in the 10 years to the end of funding from Malibu.
While the negotiations are ongoing, a simultaneous application for separation has been filed with the LA County Office of Education (LACOE). The next LACOE hearing is due to take place in March 2022; If the board members approve the Malibu petition, it will be presented to the State Board of Education in a process that is expected to take several months or years.
Both sides have accused the other of not acting in good faith in the negotiations.
When asked Tuesday if she believed the district leadership would seriously consider this latest offer, Farrer said they “couldn’t predict” their reaction.
“I really hope you are seriously considering this,” Farrer said, “and understand that we want district independence, we want local control, and we recognize the position of Santa Monica, but that doesn’t negate our position. I very much hope that the district reads this offer and reacts to it promptly. “
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