Protest Rally to Be Held to Save Samohi's History Building on Saturday morning, June 12

IF YOU CAN’T SHOW UP, SEND AN EMAIL TO THE SCHOOL BOARD @ BRD@SMMUSD.ORG, HOWARD.BLUME@LATIMES.COM, FIXSMMUSD@GMAIL.COM

TELL THEM TO STOP NEEDLESSLY OVER-SPENDING OUR TAX DOLLARS AND SAVE THE HISTORY & ART BUILDINGS.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) will begin demolition next week on the historic Samohi History Building. It is a prime example of the WPA-era construction under the New Deal and was the setting for James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause.  But the self-proclaimed progressive and sustainable SMMUSD refuses to study adaptive reuse and claims “21st Century Learning” can only be accomplished in new buildings.  

Over 6,100 residents and alumni have signed a petition asking the school board to save the History Building.  The Alumni Association and the Santa Monica Conservancy have asked for it to be saved as well.  The History Building received national attention when the National Trust for Historic Preservation featured it as “threatened” in its spring magazine. Five of the seven Santa Monica Neighborhood Organizations (the official resident groups recognized by the city) have asked the school board to study adaptive reuse of the History Building. 

The school board has ignored all of these pleas and doubled down on its plan by accelerating demolition even though a new classroom building planned to open in the fall is not done, and there are no approved plans or costs for the replacement structures.  However, the budgets are approved and that includes a new classroom building while we have declining enrollment, instead of adaptively reusing the History Building as a much-needed library and student center that will cost $33 million less.  Also coming up is a new gym budgeted at about $82.5 million that is twice the cost and half the size of Manhattan Beach’s brand new $39 million gym.

All of this is being done with the backdrop of SMMUSD, despite being one of the wealthiest districts in CA, deficit spending since 2013 and backfilling with reserves, resulting in being placed under a fiscal stabilization plan by the LA County Office of Education. SMMUSD’s structural deficit and looming pension obligations caused Moody’s to downgrade SMMUSD’s construction bond ratings in April. So the school district that is running out of money rushes forward, against the demands of residents, alumni and experts, to demolish a historic building and spend twice as much on a new building we don’t need.