Only Malibu Board of Ed Candidates Forum Skirts Malibu Concerns

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

The only board of education election forum scheduled for Malibu took place at the City Hall on Monday morning at 11 a.m. The event, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, offered an opportunity for the community to ask the candidates about the issues that effect Malibu’s public schools.
Incumbents Jose Escarce and Maria Leon Vasquez and newcomers Ben Allen and Chris Bley are running to fill three seats on the board of education. For the first time in decades, Malibu is without a resident on the slate, which means that, regardless of the the outcome of the election, Malibu will be relying entirely on Santa Monica residents to represent its interests in the school district for at least the next two years, a fact that critics see as widening the gap between two already disparate communities.
Four candidates attended the debate. Incumbent Ralph Mechur, who was appointed two years ago to fill a vacated seat, is also technically running for re-election, however, because he is unopposed, his name does not appear on the ballot. Mechur attended a school board election forum in Santa Monica last month, but was not present at the Malibu forum.
Both of the newcomers to the school board race, Allen and Bley, attended district schools and graduated from Samohi. Allen is a recent graduate of Berkeley’s law school. He spent the previous year as the UC student regent and has been an active volunteer in the Democratic party. Bley teaches government and history at a school in the neighboring community of Brentwood. He has served in the Peace Corps and has also been active in the Democratic party.
Incumbents Escarce and Leon-Vasquez are both running for a third four-year term. Escarce is a professor of medicine at UCLA. Leon Vasquez has worked with the district for 30 years.
The first question cut directly to the heart of the perceived divide between the communities: “There is a belief by many in this city that with the school board that Malibu is an after thought, if a thought at all. Is this a fair assessment and what would you do as a school board member to change that perception?”
“I do not think it is a fair perception,” Leon-Vasquez replied. “The bottom line is that we have been able to give to the students here in Malibu a great education. I think sometimes the perceptions come from adults that get involved, parents that get involved in dynamics that might not be really set.” she said.
“Malibu is geographically far from Santa Monica, it is a smaller town, the administration of the district is dominated to a large extent by the folks in Santa Monica,” Allen said. “I can see why there is a perception—there sure has been a lot of issues between the cities.” Allen added that he would “really reach out to Malibu, engage Malibu,” and suggested that the new superintendent needs to be “someone who can take Malibu seriously.”
Escarce said he could understand why the perception exists, but that he believes it is inaccurate. “The important issue is that all schools be well served,” he said. “Malibu schools are exceptional schools.”
Escarce pointed to MHS’s smaller class sizes and the number of AP classes available.
“The question can’t be answered by stats,” Bley shot back, “but by communication and people coming out to Malibu, not the number of classes offered.” Bley said that “there is a perception out there that members [of the board] may or may not be showing up. When I’ve been coming out there seems to be a perception that these board members have not been coming out, and I think that’s the key. It’s not that far.”
Asked about MHS’s ongoing bus shortage and the parking and traffic impasse at the schools in Malibu Park, Escarce said he was aware that walking or biking were not options and that the only solution was to provide adequate buses.
Bley recommended a possible park and ride system in addition to increased bus service.
“I’m in favor of making the case that student parking is important, but also better bus service,” stated Allen, who said he had heard complaints about the Malibu Park area traffic situation at a recent Measure BB meeting at MHS.
“Measure BB is already looking into putting more [in] parking,” Leon-Vasquez said.
Although the Measure BB school improvement plan for MHS has been criticized for not addressing either the traffic on Morning View Drive or the overcrowded student parking lot in the center of campus.
“In my time, in my generation, we had carpools.” Leon Vasquez said, suggesting that students who drove carpools could have preferential parking.
Her proposal did not address a 2006 change in California law that requires teen drivers to have had a license for at least one year before being able to transport passengers.
A question about community concern over the proposed Measure BB expansion at the MHS campus brought some replies that are unlikely to reassure concerned residents. Leon-Vasquez stated that community concerns, including traffic and a plan for permanent field lighting, were brought to the board’s attention at last week’s meeting in Malibu. “Residents were not informed about what was being built.
We have to have these conversations,” Leon-Vasquez said. “We found out there was a HOA. We will be having meetings in the next couple of weeks or so.”
Allen said, “I hope that the folks in Malibu Park will really understand and recognize the needs of Malibu High School to grow and to continue to serve the needs of Malibu students. There are a lot of needs and a lot of fantastic improvements. You know, there’s been a school there for a long time and people knew that coming in.”
Escarce replied that “it’s important that neighbors understand there have to be some allowances. Schools sit in neighborhoods, and they effect neighborhoods. I do believe that working together there’s a very high likelihood that we can come up with something so that we understand what are the things that are worst for them, that they really can’t live with, and they can understand what are the the things that our students need.”
Bley said he concurred all around, and stated that this issue was “the perfect opportunity for the board to reach out.”
Individual questions canvassed a wide range of issues.
Asked about the lack of a Malibu representative on the board, Allen replied that this “is definitely a concern. Malibu is a part of this district, but there have been lots of tensions. It really means that the board and the district needs to go into overdrive, to engage with malibu and learn about Malibu and do right by Malibu.”
Leon Vasquez responded to a question about whether she would support a change to require at least one Malibu resident to sit on the school board with concerns about whether the OCF, state law and the City of Santa Monica charter would allow such a change. “I would certainly be willing to have this discussion,” she said. “It was a situation where it was open for Malibu to bring in a candidate, and one did not come.”
Asked about Malibu Unified School Team, a grassroots organization that is gathering signatures in a effort to form a separate Malibu school district, Bley replied, “After everything that has gone on there’s no way not to understand it, There’s no way not to understand it,” said Bley. “I’d hope they would give myself or others a chance to repair that damage. I understand why they’re doing it. I would hope they would give us another chance.”
Asked about the criteria for a new superintendent, Escarce cited “strong leadership and personnel skills.”
“We need someone who can take the vision that we want for the school district from the community, the board [and] all of the different stakeholders in the community, understand what that vision is and ensure that everybody buys into that vision.”
On Tuesday, as The News was going to press, the Santa Monica-based grassroots education advocacy group called LEAD, Leadership Effectiveness Accountability Direction, released a press release that “enthusiastically” endorses Allen, but only “recommends” Escarce and Leon-Vasquez.
“While the incumbents have made positive contributions, LEAD believes they have failed to provide leadership at key points in the past couple of years,” LEAD co-chair Debbie Mulvaney said.
The press release states that the primarily Santa Monica-based group formed because of “dissatisfaction with the performance of the School Board and the former Superintendent.”
The Community for Excellence in Public Schools organization also endorsed Allen this week, and gave full endorsements to Escarce and Leon-Vasquez.
The forum will be broadcast on the City of Malibu’s channel 3 on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Starting on Oct. 13, it will air at 5 p.m. on weekdays until the election. Information on the candidates can be accessed online at smartvoter.org.