Santa Monica : High School Impact Study

The City Council this week urged the Santa Monica/Malibu Board of Education to consider how a proposed high school in Malibu would affect Santa Monica High School.

The proposed school has some Santa Monica parents worried that it would take away Santa Monica High School’s status as a college prep school, drain Santa Monica’s educational resources and create an ethnic imbalance, with mostly Anglo students attending the new high school.

Some urged the council, which this year is giving $1.5 million to the school district, to place controls on money it gives to the district to ensure that a new school would not hurt Santa Monica High.

But the council, by a unanimous vote, issued a statement urging the school board “to consider the impact of such a program on Santa Monica High School . . . and to . . . protect the breadth, integrity and quality of educational opportunities at Santa Monica High School.”

“I will not attempt to use our financial commitment as a source of leverage,” said Councilman Dennis Zane.

Suzanne Brewer, an activist who was involved in a successful citizen’s initiative that killed City Council-approval of a development project at the airport, says she will launch an initiative that will aim to keep Santa Monica money in Santa Monica schools.

School board members addressing the council insisted that the proposed school would not harm Santa Monica High or drain the city’s educational resources.