District Touts Ambitious Plans for Samohi

• Malibu Students Could Have a More Pronounced Choice Between a Close Small School
in a Suburban Setting and a Farther Away Hi-Tech Campus with a Euro/Urban Vibe

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Tim Cuneo recently presented the district’s ambitious plans to redevelop Santa Monica High School and integrate the campus into the Santa Monica Civic Center as part of a long-range joint use project with the City of Santa Monica, that would create an 80-acre campus.
Before Malibu High School opened in the ’90s, Samohi was the sole public school option for Malibu students. A number of Malibu families still prefer to send their children to the larger school. Some of them see the Santa Monica campus as a shorter commute for students who live at the eastern end of Malibu. Other Malibu proponents of the 3500-student school say that it offers those attending a wider range of subjects and opportunities, including access to Santa Monica City College, that may soon increase even more.
Exact enrollment numbers for Malibu residents at Santa Monica High School are not made public. School district officials maintain that the SMMUSD data collection and provision systems cannot provide a breakdown of students by zip code or city.
The joint use proposal that has just been unveiled would provide new sports and educational facilities and create a promenade to connect the current campus to the Civic Center. The plan is estimated to have a total cost of $235 million.
Samohi’s Measure BB improvements are the first part of the plan, according to the district. BB-funded campus improvements will include a new science and technology building that will feature 15 science labs, 18 additional classrooms, a new computer lab, and an auto shop. This phase of the plan, paid for out of the $57 million allocated to the school as part of Measure BB, will also include an office for the campus “house system,” relocation of the softball field to the west side of campus and upgrading the athletic fields “on an interim basis.” according to district plans. Upgrades and retrofitting are also planned for several aging buildings, including the history, language and business buildings.
Athletic facility improvements are also part of the plan, which calls for a new full gym, a practice gym, a dance studio, a weight room and an Olympic-sized pool, as well as a new, synthetic turf football field with an an eight-lane CIF track and 3000 seat stadium, six tennis courts and a subterranean parking facility with 500 parking spaces that will be constructed under the stadium. Additional phases, which the district has previously said may require additional bond money or fundraising, could potentially be funded at least in part by the City of Santa Monica Redevelopment Agency if the joint use plan is approved.
The final phase of the proposed joint use plan would include a new baseball field, softball field, improvements to wastewater infrastructure and to Samohi’s Greek Theatre and a second subterranean parking garage. Semi subterranean portions of the new parking could potentially double as rental space for uses that could include government office space or art studios. The parking facilities could also provide replacement of pier parking park and park and ride alternatives for the Expo Line, according to the plans.
Central to the proposal is a 60-foot-wide pedestrian and bicycle “promenade” through the high school campus that will “provide pedestrian and bicycle access to the Civic Center Campus, the pier, beach, and Palisades Park for the under-served Pico neighborhood,” according to the project planners.
They say, “The creation of the Seventh Street Promenade, connecting the resurrected 7th Street overpass with the new Michigan Avenue Promenade will connect the downtown and north side of the City to the Samohi and Civic Center campuses. In fact, this will create a full bicycle path from 7th Street through the downtown and Civic Center to the beach and back up to 7th Street.”
Ordinarily, neither the Malibu nor Santa Monica city councils have jurisdiction for improvements on SMMUSD campuses, but the joint use study places the Santa Monica City Council in the position of assessing Samohi’s eligibility for redevelopment funding.
According to the school district, the Civic-Center Joint-Use Project “expands the supply of publicly accessible open space in the City of Santa Monica by adding 14.5 acres of the Santa Monica High School Campus into the public domain.”
While the Santa Monica community has so far been largely supportive of the plan, some even comparing the design to European school campuses with their strong emphasis on bicycle transit, critics are questioning how the cash-strapped district, which is facing a projection of declining enrollment, in addition to a state budget crisis-generated $12 million shortfall this year alone, plans to pay for maintenance, upkeep and increased security costs for an expanded campus.
The Santa Monica City Council is expected to hold a study session on the joint use proposal at its meeting on Tuesday, March 24.