Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 1. I’m Justin Ray.
There have been many notable breakups in history: Kimye. Brangelina. Bennifer (though that one seems to be having a reboot). And now, Santa Monica and Malibu (Santibu? Malimonica?) seem to be headed in that direction.
The two cities that make up the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District want a divorce. Malibu has a secession plan heading to a key public hearing in September. If it is approved, the city would use its own property taxes to pay for its schools, would share some of those riches with Santa Monica for a decade, then cut off its former partner.
“It has come to the point where everybody feels it is best to be separate, because there is just so much history,” said Santa Monica-Malibu Supt. Ben Drati. “The marriage is not working well. We just need to be able to divide the funding so no one’s harmed.”
Malibu has been wanting out for a while. It wants control over how money is spent on education programs and teachers, and over what courses Malibu high school students are offered. And it wants the ability to create a safety plan that accounts for the community’s particular disasters of fire, flood and mudslide.
But district divorce is easier said than done. Some in the past have been successful, but many have failed. For example, in the early 1990s, voters in three South Bay cities — Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach — approved an effort to reorganize. Carson, on the other hand, jumped through various procedural hoops in its effort to separate from the Los Angeles Unified School District only to have its plan rejected by voters in 2001.
The Times just published a lengthy story about the breakup. Reporter Maria L. La Ganga lays out the key points of contention and what might happen should the two split. You can read it all here: “Santa Monica vs. Malibu: A messy school district divorce over money and who gets the kids.”
And now, here’s what’s happening across California.
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A quick reminder: We published a voter’s guide to help you make your voice heard in the gubernatorial recall election.
More than 80% of eligible Californians have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, a milestone Gov. Gavin Newsom characterized as a “momentous occasion.” That level of vaccine coverage among residents 12 and older ranks ninth out of all states, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. States with even higher rates are mostly in New England, as well as Hawaii and New Mexico. Los Angeles Times
Registered nurse Priscilla V. gives a COVID-19 vaccination to Dean Iida, 17, a senior at Eagle Rock High School. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Two California families who were in Afghanistan remain missing. Six families from the San Diego County city of El Cajon have made it safely out of Afghanistan but the whereabouts of two other families remain unclear. The last U.S. planes departed about midnight Monday, marking the end of a massive airlift in which tens of thousands of people fled Afghanistan. Los Angeles Times
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