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# School split inches along
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/school-split-inches-along/
- Published: 2004-09-11T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:02:00.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*After more than a year, policy on cash donations to schools finalized*

*By GENEVA WHITMARSH Daily Press Staff Writer*

DISTRICT HDQTRS — A movement to split the Malibu and Santa Monica portions of the local school district gained slight momentum this week as a controversial gift policy received a long-awaited stamp of approval.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School Board members voted 5 to 1 in favor of affixing their signatures to a petition that would examine separating the school districts, but stipulated that 25 percent of the registered voters in Malibu must sign the paperwork first. The petition will then be forwarded to the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

The creation of a new district for Malibu’s five schools and 2,400 students would require county and state approval, and can only be initiated by the signatures or the school board’s unanimous vote.

Although Superintendent John Deasy has refrained from taking a position on the possible split, he said it’s his obligation to facilitate the process in light of support voiced by a group of Malibu residents calling themselves the Malibu Unified School Team (MUST). The group began collecting signatures last month after a study they conducted earlier this year concluded that the split was feasible.

Team leaders say a separate school district would allow Malibu to have more control over its schools.

It remains unclear how Santa Monica would be affected by a split in the school district. A new Malibu district would take 20 percent of the teachers, buildings and schools from the joint school district, but Santa Monica might stand to profit from the deal financially. About $6 million in funding from Santa Monica City Hall would be reserved for local schools. Currently, Malibu receives roughly 20 percent of the funding.

The board also voted 4-2 to pass a controversial gift policy that syphons money between Malibu and Santa Monica schools. Under the approved proposal, the district will take 15 percent of the first $100,000 collected by individual schools. After that, the amount would drop by two percentage points for each $100,000 raised. Money would then be ferreted back out to schools based on size and need.

When the policy was first unveiled, it called upon all schools in the district to contribute 15 percent of their cash donations to a central fund. But after heated debate, the policy was revised so wealthy schools could keep more of their money.

Much of the opposition to the plan came from wealthy schools in Malibu that far out-fundraise their Santa Monica counterparts. For example, McKinley Elementary raised about $30,000 from donors last year, while Pt. Dume Elementary accrued $300,000 or more. The slated goal for fundraising at Malibu High School is $1 million.

School board member Mike Jordan cast a vote against approving the policy and stated that he believed the proper course of action would have been a voluntary equity fund.

“I believe it would have served as a catalyst for unity in our great district and rallied all of us around a cause we deeply believe in,” he said. “Ironically, in my view, because we did not first try a voluntary fund, it is entirely possible that in a couple of years there will be no funds — voluntary, mandatory or otherwise — from Malibu. Our district is on the verge of a very difficult divorce process, in my view, and the groundswell of new support in Malibu for the creation of a Malibu Unified School District is a direct result of the way we proceeded around this issue.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 11, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)