> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # District split won’t come easily - URL: https://www.smdp.com/district-split-wont-come-easily/ - Published: 2007-11-29T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T01:18:27.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import While public school parents in Malibu consider a possible split from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the end of the relationship between the two municipalities would be unlikely for more than a year due to a time-consuming and cumbersome secession process. Malibu residents have entertained thoughts of reorganizing the district into two — a Malibu Unified School District and Santa Monica Unified School District — on several occasions over the past two decades, but each time those hopes have deflated because of the volume of work entailed to turn those plans into reality. Conversations of secession have again resurfaced in recent weeks due to a difference in opinion between Malibu parents and the Board of Education over the allocation of Measure BB construction bond funding to Malibu Middle/High School. Once part of the Las Virgenes Unified School District, the public schools in Malibu became a part of the Santa Monica Unified School District — “unified” because it includes grades K-12 — in 1957\. Residents in Malibu received its first and only public high school when Malibu High School opened on the middle school campus in 1992, a year after Malibu was incorporated into a city, according to Kathy Wisnicki, the only school board member representing Malibu. Talks of dividing the district first arose in 1980, resurfacing every few years, one of the more well-known efforts being three years ago when parents formed MUST — Malibu Unified School Team, whose members are also involved in the current movement. “It’s a lot of work to separate and I think people get discouraged because it’s usually volunteer-driven and a big job to take a look at all the elements required to actually separate,” Wisnicki said on Wednesday. Reorganizing a school district begins with a petition that includes the signatures of 25 percent of the registered voters residing in the area proposing its own school district. Once the petition is submitted, the signatures must be validated within 30 days of receipt. The petition then moves on to the Committee on School District Organization, an 11-member county committee that is charged with reviewing applications for reorganizing school districts. The application could sit before the committee for about 180 days, a process that includes several public hearings and a feasibility study, examining the financial and educational impacts to both city schools. If the committee decides to make a favorable recommendation, the application then moves on to the state Board of Education. The California Board of Education meets only five times a year, handling educational issues of 58 counties in the state. As a result, there isn’t a timeline as to when they would have to review the district reorganization proposal, said Danny Villanueva, the secretary to the county Committee of School District Organization. The state Board of Education would also have to conduct its own feasibility study, as well as an environmental impact report. “There is not a prescribed timeline to look at this,” Villanueva said. “We (county committee) have set timetables, they (state) don’t.” Once it’s approved by the state, the issue would go before the voters. The last time the county committee received a petition to form a school district was about five years ago. A petition to reorganize the SMMUSD has actually been circulating for the past few years, Villanueva said. If the split is granted, the new Malibu Unified School District would include the city of Malibu and certain surrounding unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County from where students currently attend the district’s schools, including Sunset Mesa and Corral Canyon. If parents want to move the process along even faster, it can bypass a petition if the Board of Education passes a proclamation requesting the county committee examine the split. “I am cautiously optimistic that the school board will want to do what’s right for both cities and will ask the county to do their analysis so that we can find out whether this would be a viable alternative to what we have now in this district,” said Laura Rosenthal, a Malibu resident who was once the president of the Point Dume Marine Science School PTA. Rosenthal is one of the parents pushing for a split if it’s feasible. Though the recent fallout between Malibu parents and the school board could be considered a catalyst for current talks of secession, it’s not the only reason. Many parents do truly feel that each district would benefit from becoming separate entities, Rosenthal said. 337,“We don’t want this to happen if it’s not good for both cities,” Rosenthal said Wednesday. Pros, cons of a split Malibu parents seem hopeful that their efforts will lead to a split this time around. The district’s PTA Council recently formed an impartial ad hoc information committee to assess issues surrounding the split, responding to parents’ concerns. “Malibu really has its own identity now,” Rosenthal said. “We have our own high school and Malibu will never be able to have any power or control because we really lack representation.” A reason driving the push for a break-up is the distance between the two cities — a trip from Santa Monica City Hall to Malibu City Hall, where school board meetings rotate along with the district headquarters on 16th Street, can take more than 20 minutes with no traffic. The distance can be deterrence for Malibu parents to attend meetings and school events in Santa Monica and vice versa. “It’s very difficult for Malibu people to get involved in a lot of things in the district,” Rosenthal said. With the significantly smaller number of residents and registered voters in Malibu, it’s also been hard to find representation on the school board, Rosenthal added. There are about 13,000 residents in Malibu, compared to 86,500 in Santa Monica. Out of the seven members on the school board, only one — Wisnicki — is from Malibu. In a split, schools in both cities would lose funding from parcel tax revenues generated from each municipality. The district receives a total of about $10 million every year from the parcel taxes. Another benefit of being one district is that it fosters diversity and an exchange of ideas among teachers, parents and students in both cities, according to Wisnicki. “The adults who are volunteering in the schools have the benefit of meeting together and discussing ideas,” Wisnicki said. “We’re all rallying and supporting education.” Jump hedline: Splitting school district could be timely process. Suggested pullquote: “We don’t want this to happen if it’s not good for both cities.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 29, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112907.pdf?ref=smdp.com)