Santa Monica Residents: Honoring Our Commitment to Both Communities

To our friends and neighbors in Santa Monica: We hear you and value you.

The goal of Malibu’s separation effort has never been to harm Santa Monica’s excellent schools or to create an imbalance. On the contrary, we earnestly believe that this reorganization can benefit Santa Monica students and teachers as well.

How could that be? Consider this: Santa Monica’s schools will no longer have to worry about what’s happening 40 miles up the coast in Malibu. District administration will no longer be forced to allocate untold hours commuting to and attending to the oversight of schools 40 miles away. Your district’s entire budget, focus, and attention will be on Santa Monica schools alone – every dollar raised in Santa Monica will stay in Santa Monica (aside from what’s voluntarily shared via the agreement), and every decision will be made by a Santa Monica-focused board. Santa Monica will effectively “get its own district” too, one that can concentrate on the unique needs of an urban school system.

We know one of the biggest questions Santa Monica residents have is financial:

Will Santa Monica lose funding? The answer is no – not under the carefully negotiated terms of separation. Malibu’s latest proposal (the Revenue Sharing Agreement) explicitly guarantees that Santa Monica schools will retain the same per-student funding as before, with a built-in annual increase for growth (source). In fact, the plan overshoots current funding: Santa Monica would get a 4% increase every year, funded by Malibu, for roughly 18 years or until Santa Monica’s own property tax growth can sustain your budget. This means Santa Monica’s total school funding will actually be higher in the first years post-separation than if we stayed together (because Malibu is pledging additional funds).

Santa Monica schools will receive an annual payment from Malibu that guarantees current funding levels plus an annual growth rate of 4%… The guiding principle is that each entity is allocated a sufficient share of funding to provide a similar level of service as prior to separation."– Santa Monica Daily Press, covering the Malibu revenue sharing presentation (source). 

Local control for Santa Monica is another benefit. Just as Malibu seeks local control for our community, Santa Monica will have the same. You’ll elect a Santa Monica-only school board answerable solely to Santa Monica voters. Santa Monica’s city government and school district can work more closely (something already seen in initiatives like the SMMUSD-Santa Monica City joint use agreements). Decisions like school bonds, parcel taxes, or even potential reorganization within Santa Monica schools can be made without needing Malibu’s agreement. Essentially, Santa Monica gets to shape its district’s destiny without Malibu as a factor, which could streamline governance significantly.

We also acknowledge concerns about diversity and equity. Some have worried that a split might make each district less diverse or that resources for high-need students could be impacted. It’s important to address this openly:

- Diversity: The two K-12 pathways in each city are already separate – there would be no change whatsoever in the composition of the respective student bodies. Santa Monica’s schools would continue to serve the diverse student body they do today; Malibu’s student population, however, would be enriched by greater district flexibility to court and attract permit students from nearby communities – flexibility not possible under the current arrangement which puts permitting decisions in the hands of Santa Monica administration. Each district will continue efforts to promote inclusion and equity within its schools. Santa Monica will still have all its programs for English learners, Title I schools, etc., funded as they are now (with Malibu’s contributions replaced by Malibu’s revenue-sharing payments). Malibu’s district will build its own programs (and Malibu has pledged to maintain robust special education and socio-economic support programs – we’re a Basic Aid district with ample funding per student).
 

- Shared Programs: If there are specific programs that thrive on cross-city participation (for example, perhaps certain high school magnet courses or extracurricular teams), we can form inter-district partnerships. Students could join across district lines by mutual agreement. We want to be creative and cooperative. This separation is administrative, not a community divorce. Students should absolutely still interact – through sports leagues, arts festivals, academic competitions – just as they might with Beverly Hills or other districts.
 

- Fiscal Equity: Santa Monica residents rightfully want assurance that one city isn’t unfairly disadvantaged. The term sheet process was literally built around equity. As one County Committee member put it in praising the scrutiny of our plans: “Public education is about shared responsibility… one city cannot just take its wealth and walk away without a fair plan." (source). We agree! That’s why Malibu’s plan is the opposite of “walking away” – it’s "let’s both walk forward, and Malibu will lend a hand (financially) to Santa Monica during the transition.” The 50-year revenue-sharing idea came from exactly this ethos of fairness. We want Santa Monica to thrive because we genuinely value our neighbors. Many of us in Malibu have friends, family, even co-workers in Santa Monica. We’re intertwined culturally and economically. Strong Santa Monica schools benefit the whole region.

 

What Santa Monica gains from this:
- A focused Santa Monica-only school board and district leadership that can innovate for an urban district (perhaps exploring things like specialized academies, leveraging city partnerships for after-school programs, etc.) without needing to balance Malibu’s very different rural/suburban needs.
 

- Continued strong funding – per the separation agreements, both new districts would actually begin life as “basic aid” districts with high per-pupil funding. In projections, Malibu USD would be one of the top-funded districts per student in California, and Santa Monica USD would remain very well-funded too. The difference is Malibu’s smaller student base yields more dollars per kid; the revenue sharing mechanism then redistributes some of that to Santa Monica to equalize things. The result: roughly equal funding per student, which is exactly the current state (except Malibu taxpayers will kick in extra so Santa Monica never drops).
 

- No more internal debates over Malibu vs Santa Monica priorities. Historically, there have been tensions (for example, how bond funds are allocated – Santa Monica passed Measure SMS for its schools, Malibu passed Measure M for ours, precisely to avoid that conflict). With separate districts, each community can pass bonds or parcel taxes tailored to its needs, without concern that the other city’s voters might disagree.
 

- Educational Excellence Preserved: Santa Monica’s schools will continue their tradition of excellence. The separation plan has been vetted by financial experts to ensure neither district would slip academically or financially. In fact, the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s own staff, even while pointing out criteria concerns, acknowledged that SMMUSD as a whole has high performance (95% graduation rate). Santa Monica’s new district will carry on that legacy with full attention on your 8,500 students.

Santa Monica residents, we understand change can be unsettling. But remember, this idea isn’t new – even Santa Monica’s own representatives have at times supported the concept "provided that Santa Monica’s students are not harmed.” We have worked tirelessly to meet that condition. In 2018, when the SMMUSD Board approved the conceptual framework, Board Member Craig Foster hailed it as supporting “local control for both communities” and being fair to both sides (source). That spirit still guides us.

Malibu’s independence can strengthen Santa Monica’s school system by making it more focused and by removing a source of financial uncertainty (you will have a legally binding revenue flow from Malibu). It is not a zero-sum game. We truly believe both districts can flourish – academically, financially, and in terms of community engagement – once freed to focus on their own local challenges and innovations.