New Malibu High Plans To Be Unveiled For Comment Tonight
Written by 991KBU on October 8, 2020
Tonight is the night … Malibu residents will get a public look at new plans for Malibu High School’s new campus.
The Santa Monica Malibu School District will host a public meeting … on the Internet … tonight.
The idea is to explain the district architect’s plans for the western two thirds of the campus.
The 60-year-old Juan Cabrillo Elementary School buildings would be demolished … and replaced with a new high school building.
Architects have not revealed their exact plans.
But a flier shows three concepts ….
And not all of them include removing the center access road … which connects to a school bus garage and large parking lot behind the school.
The district says the plans include … and we quote … well-lit classrooms, a state-of-the-art kitchen and café, outdoor learning areas and pitch spaces connected by common areas designed to add to the collaborative learning environment.
The building will also include high school administration offices.
The new building has already been funded by a pair of bond issues passed years ago.
A new middle school building on the campus opened in 2019, featuring 12 classrooms.
And work is wrapping up this fall on the new combined administration, library and science lab / classroom building on Morning View Drive.
But the new high school building is only the next phase in the campus plan approved by the school board in 2019.
The master plan includes tearing out the outdated auditorium, old gym and locker rooms in the center of the campus.
But it’s not clear how much that will cost … or if another bond issue will be needed.
And the issue of declining enrollment cannot be ignored.
Demographic changes … and the woolsey Fire … have severely depressed the student population count.
But Malibu has been thru dips like this before … and the possible addition of hundreds of maybe thousands of new residential units in Malibu die to changes in state laws … such as auxiliary dwelling units … could cause a boom in the number of school kids.
Or maybe not,.
Either way .. the current facilities are 60 years old and not conducive to educating in a modern computer era.
Whatever the santa Monica-based school board decides … the project will have to go thru the Malibu Planning Commission and city council.
The public session will be from 6;30 to 8:30 tonight on the Zoom platform.
We have linkage information posted on the KBUU webpage.
How to join the meeting:
Meeting URL: https://bit.ly/3n3ifEE Phone: (669) 900-6833
Meeting ID: 942 5836 3333 Passcode: 948113388
