SMMUSD Board Votes 7-0 To Agree On New Malibu School District

After at least 24 years of effort … Malibu wins a vote from the Santa Monica school board for an independent school district.

But Santa Monica wants approval from voters in both cities … to split the district.

One longtime opponent on the Santa Monica school board says …. Malibu changed her mind … 

Three months after the new high school was opened … it won permits for its underground sewage plant. 

One Texas oil company has plans to sneak around California law to resume offshore oil drilling up the coast from Malibu.

A different Texas company … a plans to sneak around federal law to start daily passenger flights out of Santa Monica Airport. 

Three agreements to split Malibu out of the Santa Monica school district were approved by the school board last night in a historic 7-0 unanimous vote.

The agreements go before the Malibu City Council next Monday.

Even school board members like Maria Leon Vazquez … who spent the last 10 years fighting against the Malibu independence move … voted for it.

She said the people of Malibu changed her mind.

MARIA LEON VOTE  71717

“Originally, (I was) not in favor ‘cause in the first vote, I was the only no vote.

“I think hearing from the community … of Malibu … I am going to vote yes for this.  I think we should move it forward.”

The road to an independent Malibu school district has passed a major mile marker last night …there are several years of work to be done … before the Malibu Unified School District can emerge, 

And among major issues is how to deal with possible teacher layoffs after the district splits.

Last night .. the president of the Classroom teachers Assocaiurton told the board the teachers union has come around to support an independent Malibu district.

Even though that may mean teacher layoffs ar win the future in both cities. 

Claudia Batista-Nicholas is the teachers union president.

UNION 71715

“We recognize that some of our concerns have been addressed.

“Yet many significant questions remain.  One of our greatest concerns the ongoing decline in enrollment in both cities.

“We know that declining enrollment inevitably leads to reduction in staffing and ultimately layoffs. This is not just a labor issue. It is an educational issue.”

The worry is that veterans … highly paid teachers from Malibu the Malibu schools might face layoffs here.

And that they might use their union rights to transfer to Santa Monica and bump teachers there.

School board member Lori Lieberman last night said tlayoffs need to be addressed. . 

LIBERMAN LAYOFFS  71718

“Whether in Santa Monica or Malibu, I think are justifiably concerned about job security once separation occurs.

“While in Malibu … teachers are concerned that … because of the size of the district … 

“Their jobs could be at risk and could leave the layoffs which could even affect very long-term teachers.

“Because i Malibu there are mostly long-term teachers.

“In Santa Monica … teachers are concerned about young teachers losing their job because they don’t have seniority and if Malibu teachers would lose their jobs and bump Santa Monica teachers … that would cause problems..”

Lieberman said laws will have to be passed in Sacramento to address that issue … and others.  No school district in California history has ever gone through a divorce like this. 

And last night … another potential problem cropped up.

Three Santa Monica school board members said they wanted wanted the agreements Malibu to be subject to approval by voters … in both cities.

But no such language was added to the item approved by the school board last night. 

Would Santa Monica voters approve allowing Malibu to separate out?  There would still be a legal agreement to use Malibu tax revenues to keep Santa Monica school budgets at their current level.

But Malibu has no such guarantee.

One school board member from Santa Monica said … given the higher costs to educate kids in a small district like Malibu … it might mean Santa Monica would be better off financially without the financial burden of Malibu.

There are lots of problems yet to be worked out. 

It may be several years before a divorce decree goes into effect.

Longtime Malibu independent school advocate  Wade Majors last night predicted … mistakes may be made.

MAJOR SPLIT 71716

“Let me emphasize that no one believes this will be a cakewalk. We’re going to make mistakes and you’re going to make mistakes.

“But we will learn from our mistakes … we will learn from each other’s mistakes … and we will especially learn from each other’s success.

“Because none of us would have seen this process through to this stage if we were not  absolutely committed our children, teachers, and our communities, prosper.”

The  three agreements go to the Malibu City Council next Monday night.

Malibu Planning Commission, Without Complaint, OKs New Permits For Sewage Plant At MHS

The Malibu Planning Commission last night approved the new Malibu High School sewage treatment plant.

It was an open and shut case … no opposition. 

This was the last permit that was needed for the new classroom building … which was opened for student and teacher use last summer.

The state water board required that the existing septic tanks and seepage pits … 70 years old … be replaced.

But that happened in the middle of the construction project….for the 100 million dollar building. 

The underground sewage treatment plant was installed under a parking lot without permits.

But it violates no rules … it replaces 70 year old septic tanks …

The water that it discharges into the soil is clean enough to drink … and it’s already in and working.

That was enough for the planning commission …. which voted five to nothing to approve it.. 

Two Council Members Propose Giving Fire Victims’ Experts Veto Power Over City Hall Judgment Calls

A major change in the way some building safety decisions are made by the City of Malibu is proposed by two council members.

At issue … what to do if the city building safety people think a proposed wildfire replacement house plan violates building codes.

Sometimes … architects or engineers working for homeowners try to substitute their judgment for the decisions made by plan checkers or city building officials. 

Council members Bruce Silverstein and Haylynn Conrad want to tie the hands of the city … and let the applicants’ engineers or architects make the decision on judgment calls. 

They propose a new city policy that … whenever there is a difference of opinion between the city building safety officials and the professional civil engineers hired by the homeowner … the city Staff shall defer to the stamped decision of a licensed civil engineer.

In other words … it gives professionals hired by the homeowners veto power over decisions made by building safety officials at city hall.

That plan … from council members Haylynn Conrad and Brice Silverstein … goes before the Malibu City Council next Monday.

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Regular Daily Air Service Form Santa Monica To Las Vegas Coming Soon

Scheduled commercial air service is coming to Santra Monica Airport… even though the city of Santa Monica plans to rip out the runway starting in two years.

Small turbofan aircraft capable of 30 passengers will launch daily scheduled rpountrips from Santa Monica to Las Vegas.

The 30 seat planes are designed to sneak around federal regulations … bu qualifying as charter flights.

As such … they do not have to have security checkpoints or other required procedure that scheduled aircraft have.

JSX promises says it passengers will be able to check in 20 minutes before departure.

As they put it … this will  “eliminate the crowds, long lines, and unpredictable delays that have come to define traditional air travel,” officials said.

On-board service includes complimentary cocktails, in-seat personal device charging and “business-class legroom,” with free Starlink Wi-Fi expected to roll out during the first quarter of 2026 pending certification.

This is certain to infuriate a majority of westside LA residents ,.. and Santa Monica residents… the majority of which have been campaigning to close the Santa Monica Airport.

The Santa Monica city council has reaffirmed its goal to close Santa Monica Airport in 2028.

The scheduled flights to Las Vegas may not be the only air service coming to Santa Monica.

Archer Aviation plans to start air taxi service using electric airplanes in the area.

Archer has signed agreements to acquire control of Hawthorne Airport … just three miles southeast of LAX … 

Archer has plans for the Hawthrone Airport to serve as its operational hub for its planned LA air taxi network

Back at Santa Monica Airport … JSX  plans to use s a low-noise, low-emissions design that burns roughly half the fuel as JSX’s jets and can operate from runways about half as long.

Texas Oil Company Wants White House To Declare Santa Barbara’s Offshore Oil To Be Interstate Pipeline Exempt From State Rules

In news from up the coast … a Texas oil company is doing everything it can to weasel out of California law as it tries to restart offshore oil wells.

Sabvle Oil … run by a spinoff ion Exxon Mobil and using Exxon Mobil money … is seeking to evade California’s strong laws against offshore oil in the Santa Barbara channel.

Sable Sable Offshore Corporation now asserting federal, and not state regulators should decide on pipeline restart. The pipeline ruptured in 2015, causing a massive spill

Sable wants to reactivate an oil pipeline which ruptured, and caused a major oil spill in Santa Barbara in 2015.  That spill nearly reached Malibu. 

Sable Offshore Corporation has been fighting to get the State Fire Marshal’s Office to allow the repaired pipeline to reopen, so it can resume pumping oil from three idle oil platforms off the Santa Barbara County coast. 

The state agency has not issued a final ruling on the restart plan.

But, in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sable said it’s now asking federal regulators to allow it to bypass California. 

The company argues that under the federal Pipeline Safety Act, the pipeline constitutes an interstate pipeline facility. 

The pipeline runs from state controlled lands just off  the coast from U C Santa Barbara … to Bakersfield. 

But this gives the trumpadzmninistration a way to invoke the federal government’s control of pipelines that cross state lines … and assert jurisdiction by preempting California. 

Environmental groups have been battling the restart efforts, saying using the decades old infrastructure sets the stage for another spill.

The Texas oil company said it’s still also pursuing the possibility of using oil tankers to move oil. The filing said the preference is to use a pipeline for what the company called the “safe and responsible” shipment of oil, but is keeping the tanker idea open.

In 2015 … about 140,000 gallons of oil spilled on the coast, and into the ocean. at Refugio State Beach.

That’s about 70n miles up the coast from Malibu.

Feds Plan Major Changes At Westwood VA Campus

Some major changes are coming to a west side landmark next to the 405 freeway.

The Veterans Administration will renovate two historic buildings on its West Los Angeles campus.

This is the complex on Wilshire Bouleavard just west of the 405.

The VA is shifting away from earlier plans for domrmitory like structures for verteansc… in favor of plans for what the feds call a vibrant community center.

That is per an order form the president … who wants to create what he called the Trump Center for Warrior Independence.

The LA Times reports that a former mess hall … dating from 1929 … will become a community building at the heart of the development. 

The H-shaped 1929 Art Deco building was designed by the same firm that built the Beverly Hills City Hall. 

It is across Wilshire from the new subway station … which will open in less than two years.