The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District is considering the purchase of a single family home adjacent to Franklin Elementary School and while the school would like to incorporate the property into the planned campus remodel, some parents are opposing the purchase based on fears it may become additional parking.
The District is negotiating to purchase the single family home at 814 25th Street. The property is adjacent to Franklin Elementary school and school officials said they don’t actually have a definitive plan for it should they complete the purchase. Rather, the District is always interested in acquiring property adjacent to its existing schools, especially when they are already remodeling.
SMUSD Chief Operations Officer Carey Upton said the narrative that the property will become a parking lot is premature but understandable given the existing plans. The area of Franklin that touches the property is slated to become parking, but that doesn’t mean the new property would have to be parking as well.
“In the campus plan we are taking down the preschool building and that will be a parking lot,” he said. “The parking lot we’re installing is not ample sized to support the school and its anticipated growth and many if not all of our people do not arrive by public transportation. They tend to drive because most of our people cannot afford to live in Santa Monica.”
The district cannot comment on the details of the purchase negotiations but the property is valued between $3 and $4M based on popular real estate websites. Upton said the potential sale wasn’t initiated by the District but came about when the property owner expressed an interest to sell after seeing the plans for the remodeled school.
The transitional kindergarten and kindergarten being torn down will be replaced as part of the major modernization at Franklin under Measure QS, the $495 million facilities bond approved by voters in November 2024.
Those replacements will be the centerpiece of the new construction with a new single-story early education building that includes four modern classrooms for transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students. Once completed, the aging kindergarten buildings and portables at Montana Avenue and 25th Street will be demolished and replaced with a reconfigured parking lot and drop-off area.
The modernization also includes replacing existing playfields with new soccer turf, a running track, upgraded play courts and outdoor learning areas. The design adds approximately 8% more green space campus-wide and includes security improvements with perimeter gates at all entrances.
Construction will begin soon but Upton said the District will have just over a year to make any decisions about what to do with the proposed property purchase.
The item is part of the Board’s closed session and will not be discussed in public although public comment will be taken. The remainder of the meeting includes end-of-year administrative items including the reshuffling of Board positions, scheduling future meetings and updates on finance and mandated curriculum updates.
The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at the district headquarters 1717 4th St. and is available to view online. For more information, visit https://www.smmusd.org/board-of-education/board-meetings.