SMMUSD Staff Ask Board: Where Are We Going In Malibu?
Written by 991KBU on May 2, 2018
Santa Monica school district officials … halfway through a project to modernize Malibu high school and remove PCB contamination … now say they are working without a master plan …and need one quickly.
That’s the gist of a report given to the school board yesterday … two days before it is to make a decision on what to do.
Options include … continue remodeling … tear it down and start over … move kids out of the adjacent elementary school … expand on to school District owned land next-door …
The district acknowledges … and we quote …
“We realize that a complete re-visioning and reconstruction of the campus will more effectively address the need for more innovative teaching and learning spaces as well as address PCB abatement.”
District staff proposes tearing down and rebuilding the main two-story classroom … the music building the arts classrooms .… and the recently-remodeled special education … and shops buildings.
Also … the theater and kitchen building in front of the campus … need to be replaced.
The district is even examining the future of the new high school classroom and gym … both built 11 years ago.
The district wants a a plan for the entire arrangement of the entire campus … and consider incorporating the Juan Cabrillo Elementary School campus and vacant land to the east of the school …. owned by the district …
All of this … of course … depends on funding.
Can it be done for 150 million dollars … the amount of the proposed bond issue???
The city and Coastal Commission would have to approve the plan … not to mention the voters.
And there is the possibility of lawsuits from neighbors … that delayed current construction for four years.
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Enter into this … the pending … possible divorce between the Santa Moncia and Malibu school districts.
Remember … the Santa Monica school board wants to continue Malibu property tax subsidization for the Santa Monica school operations.
That’s 11 million dolalrs a year … for 50 years.
This … after the Santa Monica school campuses were rebuilt with bond issue money from the last two elections in Malibu …. during which some 70 million dollars in Malibu tax money was siphoned to Santa Monica school construction projects.
Huge questions.
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On Thursday night … the Santa Monica Malibu school board meets … this time at Malibu City Hall … at 5:30.
The immediate issue.
The Board of Education needs to make a decision … on whether to suspend the planned Malibu High School modernization and PCB abatement projects for the summer and the fall.
This will still allow the district to meet the a federal court order to remove P C B from most classroom areas … that work has been done …. that money spent.
But it would delay the abatement and management of areas where PCB is sealed up in the floors or walls.
