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# Schools get a chunk of change
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/schools-get-a-chunk-of-change/
- Published: 2007-04-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T00:37:32.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

CITY HALL The sun is peaking through the dark clouds cast over the school district’s budget dilemma.

City Council is expected tonight to approve staff recommendations for a $750,000 increase in its annual contribution to the school district for use of its facilities, bringing the total proportion to $7.2 million for fiscal year 2007-08.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) is currently facing a deficit of approximately $3 million for the 2007-08 fiscal school year.

“The council and the city government have always been supportive of our schools,” said school board member Jose Escarce on Monday. “I am deeply grateful and certainly very gratified by the continued support of the city to our schools.”

The contribution is part of the Master Facility Use Agreement, a contract whereby the city provides unrestricted revenue to the SMMUSD in exchange for use of school facilities in Santa Monica. The five-year agreement was signed in June 2005 — though it was retroactive to 2004 — with the understanding it could be renewed again in 2009.

The city’s use of the school fields is central in the agreement, said Escarce, who was school board president when the Master Facility Use Agreement was first crafted.

City and school officials originally agreed on an annual base contribution of $6 million, allowing the amount to automatically adjust itself every year according to the Consumer Price Index. The contribution amount has risen accordingly, to $6.5 million for the current fiscal school year.

In addition to the contribution through the Master Facility Use Agreement, the city also provides $5.3 million for school site youth programs and another $10 million for

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 24, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)