By Rufus Baker Santa Monica
In all the talk about the secession of Malibu from our Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, no one yet has raised the sensitive and troublesome issue of what will happen to those many communities that are part of the “Malibu 90265” postal area but that consistently have insisted on remaining unincorporated, refusing to become part of the city of Malibu.
Unlike the city of Santa Monica, which generously gives millions of dollars each year to benefit every segment of the school district, the city of Malibu, being more frugal and pragmatic, is unlikely to subsidize folks living in the various high-income, unincorporated Malibu neighborhoods that owe no allegiance to Malibu City Hall.
It was precisely because of such opposition to incorporation by so many Malibu communities that it took four cityhood campaigns over four decades before the city of Malibu finally became a reality. The 1991 incorporation vote succeeded only by drawing these areas outside its boundaries: ■Sunset Mesa, adjacent to the old Getty Museum, a sizeable tract whose residents reject Malibu (despite their Malibu addresses) and identify more closely with Pacific Palisades. ■Pepperdine University, which includes family housing for faculty and staff, as well as student dorms. ■Numerous residential areas in the foothills a mile or so inland from PCH plus coastal zones on the east (Topanga Beach) and west (Leo Carrillo Beach, County Line).
In designing a proposed Malibu School District, do these neighborhoods get lumped in with the city of Malibu they have refused for so long to join, or do they somehow remain tied to Santa Monica even in the event of a district breakup?
The more closely one examines this frivolous notion of splitting the school district, the more impractical and senseless it becomes. The majority consensus is that the Santa Monica-Malibu system is one district, indivisible.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 20, 2004. Read the original PDF.