News analysis: SM about to strand Malibu with school costs

Speaking of the Santa Monica school board independence offer … this news analysis.

Santa Monica board members apparently see the writing on the wall … they will not be able to pass a school bond issue districtwide … given the strong negative feelings about the SMMUSD in Malibu.

So … they propose breaking Malibu off … but only insofar as school bonds.

Two separate subdistricts would be formed … voters in each would be asked to approve school bond issues for construction projects in their respective cities

So far … so good … except for this problem:

Between Santa Monica district incompetence and unsuccessful lawsuits filed by some Malibu interests … the two recent school bond proceeds were spent largely in Santa Monica.

Major projects have been finished there … but Malibu High School is only half finished.

And now … trace amounts of P C B have been found in the oldest Malibu High buildings still remaining …

But nearly all the existing school bond money is spent … mostly in Santa Monica.

And the obvious conclusion is that the Malibu campus … even after new construction is finished … really is not functional.

It might be better to tear the old buildings down.

Santa Monica has transferred more than 70 million dollars in school bond money from Malibu taxpayers to Santa Monica … over the past decade.

Splitting the district apart for a bond issue would seal that… no bond money would flow back from Santa Monica to Malibu.

Malibu would never get its campus rebuilt to the extent that the Santa Monica schools have been spiffed up.

Of course … there’s no way Santa Monica would ever spend more than our 35 percent share of a districtwide bond in Malibu.

Having our own bond now would mean 100 percent of our money stays in Malibu … point out for the first time ever.

And at a time when Malibu is being asked to maintain the operations cash flow to SM, SM has had its straw in our milkshake for capital projects, and is about to walk out of the drugstore.