SMMUSD Board Seats for Malibu

Dear Editor,

At the Business Roundtable last Friday morning, Craig Foster, our sole representative from the Malibu School Board, urged a possible letter-writing campaign to the LA County Office of Education (LACOE) to hear the petition. aimed at redrawing the school district to guarantee two administrators for Malibu.

The petition is authorized under a new state law, SB 442, which went into effect January 1, 2022. This would allow the county committee to create “trusteeship areas” or electoral districts within the SMMUSD, pursuant to the California Voting Rights Act, or CVRA. The proposed map divides the current district into seven trust areas, including two districts with shared parts of Malibu and Santa Monica.

Craig reiterated that there is a good chance he will lose his seat in the election this year if it is not heard and granted. This would again leave us with ZERO representation in Malibu in the school district. And our schools in Malibu will suffer.

Please email LACOE within the next few days c/o Anna Heredia at [email protected] and

CC : Craig [email protected]; this is the appropriate person at LACOE to send your letter of support for the SMMUSD redistricting hearing and approval in time for the next election. Copy Craig Foster so he can make sure it gets to them. Apparently Santa Monica has three trustees who live within 500 miles of each other, and that doesn’t represent the district as a whole. They are obviously opposed to this change which must be completed in accordance with the law. The creation of districts will put an end to their reign.

A two-seat majority from Malibu plus two like-minded Santa Monica seats out of 7 would effectively end the continued struggle for unification, because that majority would then be able to approve separation from Malibu where the current majority always fought it.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Jo Drummond, Malibu

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