District Session to Try to Calm MHS Lights Clash Exacerbates Issue

• Opponents of 80-Foot-Tall Stadium Lights Say Proponents Violate School E-System Rules

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

The Malibu High School library was filled to capacity, as representatives of the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District faced the growing ire of Malibu residents at a school district-sponsored workshop on Measure BB funded plans to install permanent field lighting and synthetic turf at the high school football stadium.
The community was asked, in a letter of invitation from district Superintendent Tim Cuneo, to attend the workshop “with an open mind and willingness to listen,” but community members made it clear from the start of the meeting that they expected school representatives to also listen, even if the questions asked were, in the words of one district official, “difficult to hear, and difficult to answer.”
“Over the weekend, we got together and read the Local Coastal Plan, the LCP,” plan critic Steve Uhring said at the start of the meeting. “We read the last time you applied to the Coastal Commission for a permit and the response they had, and we looked at it and said, ‘all these things seem to indicate that permanent night lighting is not something that they want to put in Malibu.’ What makes you believe that the rules that apply to everybody else in Malibu in terms of night lighting don’t apply to the high school?”
“I think one of the primary answers to that question is that we are a public school and that does make a difference as we are moving forward,” SMMUSD assistant superintendent and chief financial officer Jan Maez replied.
“We don’t believe we are exempt from the LCP. We do believe that we have to go through the Coastal Commission process,” Maez elaborated. “I don’t think there is anyone in this room from the school district who would support the use of the temporary lights without the Coastal Commission permit, and that is precisely why we ask the board to have us move forward on getting that permission on the temporary lights.”
“What about the past six years?” asked school neighbor Jay Griffith, referring to the length of time of the school’s use of unpermitted temporary lighting.
“I can’t go back and change that, and I’m not here to offer an explanation,” Maez replied. “The purpose of tonight is to talk about the uses that we see for the field and the lighting of that field and ask you—that through the presentation—that you look at what is being proposed to the board.
“One of the things I think could be very valuable from this community is to help us with what those conditions [will be],” Maez said, adding “What suggestions you might have about conditions for the use of those fields as lit fields.”
Carey Upton, the district director of theater operations and facility permits, informed the audience that he has been working with the school on developing the MHS field improvement plan.
“We have decided to let the city joint use plan go,” Upton said. “I’m sort of sad about that. I think that it’s a loss for our city. But, at the time when they have a desire to add greater use, then at that point the city can go back and go through this process.”
Upton gave a PowerPoint presentation outlining the current and projected uses of the field.
“[We’re] paying a lot more attention to what the real needs are for the school,” Upton said.
The audience was told that the current daytime use, consisting of football, boys and girls soccer, boys lacrosse and track and field constitutes 177 days, or 383 daylight hours, of use.
However, Upton added that, “Overall, the [current] use is around 1000 hours, but we don’t have great statistics.”
Upton’s statement that the temporary lights were limited to four nights last year—a total of 22 hours—was met with a roar of protest from the audience.
“That is patently not true,” Griffith said. “The lights were up for seven weeks. I look directly at the field.”
“This is the information I have from the school,” Upton replied.
“They were used for practice and everything,” another neighbor called out.
“I told you this is how many nights a year they’re on,” MHS Principal Mark Kelly replied.
“This is just not so, I see them,” Griffith shot back, echoed by a chorus of “but we live here. We see them,” from other residents.
“You don’t hold by your agreements,” Griffith said. “Who’s to say, going forward, you’re not going to disregard what you say today?”
In an attempt to get the meeting back under control, Upton presented the district’s reasons for the proposed field upgrades, which include: “practice time for multiple teams, additional field time during daylight savings time.”
Synthetic turf “is needed to support current educational use,” which the district representative explained was a Title IX requirement.
According to the presentation, the plan would also “allow for consecutive rather than concurrent games; allow for larger participation and audiences for home games—creating a greater sense of community.”
“It makes our teams and school programs more competitive,” Upton said.
Upton stated that the current need is for 44 nights—106 hours—but projected a future need for a range of 50 to 82 nights of use per year, or a total of between 110 to 185 hours of light use. The operating plan would be reviewed by the every five years and the district would reserve the right to request Coastal Commission approval for increased usage as demand grows.
“We’re going to have to sit down and do this again in five years?” Griffith said. “That’s why we don’t want lights.”
The district also revealed that it regards the synthetic turf and the lights as a “package,” and the district is unlikely to consider one without the other.
Upton stated that the synthetic turf, with an installation price tag of approximately $1.5 million, is required because “grass burns out too fast.”
Upton, who acknowledged that he “wasn’t an expert on synthetic turf,” dismissed numerous health and environmental concerns that the audience raised about the artificial playing surface. “Artificial turf is not perfect, but in my experience it weighs better,” he said.
School neighbor Steve Scheinkman pointed out that if the field improvement package costs the $2.5 million the district estimates, and the lights are used for the projected 103 hours a year, then the cost for the night lighting would equal $4000 per hour over the 10-year life span that the district anticipates for the synthetic turf.
“Does the district believe the use is cost effective?” Uhring asked. yes,” Maez replied.
“I’m concerned about governance,” Uhring continued. “Let’s assume that you’ve had 84 nights. Who is the person who can say you can’t have 85? What happens if the rules are breached?”
“Personnel action,” replied Maez, who acknowledged that “the lack of credibility is a given.”
“Why would you go ahead and apply for a permit when these things haven’t been worked out?” Scheinkman said.
Asked who would control the lights, Maez replied that the lighting company, Musco, would have the ability to switch the lights off or on at any time from the company’s headquarters in the Midwest.
I’ve called Musco seven times,” Griffith said. They never returned my calls.”
“They’re in the business of selling lights,”Maez replied. “I don’t imagine any of you are buying lights.”
“We feel like we’re doing all the listening and the district has already decided,” Point Dume resident Dusty Peak said.
“You have gone far beyond BB, 48-year Malibu resident Lucile Keller told the district representatives. “I think you have gone to your internal community for support. That community rolls over ever four years. You need to keep the support of the taxpayers. You don’t have that right now. I think you have a status problem here. I am appalled by the amount of money. This is a horrendous amount of money.”
“The first tenet of good sportsmanship is following the rules,” Griffith said, outlining a long list of community grievances that he said the school has refused to address. “Credibility is nonexistent. You are asking us to open a blank checkbook. In five years we have to go through this again. 84 nights? It’s crazy.”
“Lights are a violation of everything this community stands for,” another resident stated, calling for rules to “limit it to a lot fewer than 84 nights.
“There is little or no trust between the community and the school,” Malibu Park resident Simon James said. “We need to rebuild trust. I was disappointed on the governance. It’s like the fox guarding the hen house. We need consequences for violations that have teeth.”
Hap Henry, a MHS football player, called the issue “more complicated than I had presumed. I’m being victimized,” he said. You guys need to compromise.”
Most of the residents who attended the workshop were not in the mood to compromise. They expressed anger that the field lighting issue was already on the Thursday school board agenda, and that this workshop was, in one participant’s words, “just a dog and pony show.”
Inflammatory emails that have appeared on a school-sanctioned group email list and Web site were also blamed for deepening the divide between the district and the community.
Community members at the meeting expressed dismay at what they described as abusive and inaccurate rhetoric that they say has been essentially condoned by the school through the lack of moderator intervention on the e-list. The list’s rules state that “it reserves the right to accept, reject, or edit post for content in these cases, but not limited to: excessive length, duplication, profanity, vulgarity, personal/ethnic/class slurs, false information,” according to a participant with the rules.
“I wasn’t going to speak today,” resident Judi Hutchinson said. “We’ve said it all and you’re not listening, but my neighbor, Tom O’Meara, called. He said, ‘I want you to go and tell them how much we’re opposed to the field plan.’ He worked with me and [then principal Mike] Matthews [in 1994, when the football program was started]. He loved the fields. He used to walk there, he and his dog. He can’t walk well any more. I told him I would tell you.”
“I’m sorry if there’s a feeling that this project has grown,” Maez said at the end of the meeting. It obviously feels different to you.”
The field improvement project is on the agenda for the March 5 SMMUSD board meeting at Malibu City Hall, Thursday, Mar. 5, starting at 5:30 p.m. The MHS Measure BB improvement plans are available on the district Web site: www.smmusd.org