Publisher’s Notebook

• Shedding Light on School Issues •

ANNE SOBLE

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has a permanent superintendent as of this Thursday who told the Malibu Surfside News last week that Malibu’s views are important to the district, and he assured the community that his administration will be responsive and transparent as it meets local educational needs.
There’s a tremendous reservoir of goodwill toward public education in Malibu. Residents wish the superintendent success as he tackles the challenges facing all of the school systems in California. But Malibuites want a say in how these challenges are faced, even if they cannot always make the trek to the regular school board meetings that are held in the late afternoon in Santa Monica.
One way Malibuites can participate is to be able to view replays of board meetings in a timely fashion. The superintendent was surprised to learn that meetings held at the Santa Monica district offices are not promptly posted on the district Web site, often taking two to three weeks after a meeting, or longer, to become available. If this problem can be remedied, it will go a long toward preventing the blindsiding of locals on key issues.
When the school board meets in Malibu, as it does a few times a year, residents should turn out in force. This month’s meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 5, at City Hall. Among the issues expected to take center stage is whether the illegal Malibu High School athletic field lighting system, in contravention of City of Malibu and California Coastal Commission agreements, should be sanctioned; and a new proposal calling for field lights atop poles up to 80 feet tall that could be used for as many as 203 nights a year should move forward.
Just as Malibuites don’t want the horizon marred by a liquefied natural gas terminal or oil drilling rigs, some residents contend that eight-story-tall poles would sully their sightlines, and the lighting would impair their quality of life and adversely affect the environment.
The possibility of compromise between humans is always preferable to conflict, and it would not appear that the issues here require a Solomon-like decree. The field lights are part of a bigger package of changes proposed for the campus that needs fine-tuning with extensive input from the people immediately affected by it: the residents of Malibu Park; the entire school population and community at large; and the Coastal Commission charged with looking at the project’s implications for those who come to Malibu to enjoy the views.
It is ironic that the district is awash in funds for structures as it struggles to find dollars for teachers and classroom supplies. Although there is no doubt that the proposition-happy special interests in California needed to be reigned in with specificity, this has led to an edifice complex gripping public institutions, causing them to be more concerned with image than substance. There is something wrong when construction takes precedent over instruction in such dire financial times.