MSN_021419

10 | February 14, 2019 | Malibu surfside news school
malibusurfsidenews.com
SMMUSD Board of Education
With fields in disrepair, spring sports in turmoil
District, uncertain
of when fields can
open, says it will
seek alternatives
Michele Willer-Allred,
Freelance Reporter
Santa Monica-Malibu
Unified School District
officials said they do not
know when mud-damaged
sports fields at Malibu
High School can reopen,
upsetting many local athletes
unable to play there as
teams’ spring seasons get
underway.
During the Thursday,
Feb. 7 Board of Education
meeting held at Malibu City
Hall, SMMUSD Superintendent
Ben Drati informed
the school athletes, their
parents and coaches that a
plan had yet to be formulated
to deal with forecasted
rain and resulting mud that
could continue to spill onto
already damaged fields.
“We have to get the mud
off first while simultaneously
keeping the mud from
coming in,” Drati said.
“I can’t tell you when it
will open up,” Drati admitted,
adding that the district
is committed to getting a
temporary place for the students
to play.
Drati said that shortly after
the first round of rains
that followed the Woolsey
Fire in November,
there was some mudflow
onto the baseball field and
around the track.
Drati said that alerted
school officials to issues
with the hillsides surrounding
the school, so engineers
were brought in and barricades
set up.
“But the second set of
rain was a lot more devastating,”
Drati said, adding
that the softball fields were
completely covered with
mud, along with tennis
courts and baseball fields.
Drati emphasized that the
district is trying to be creative
and come up with a
shorter-term plan to ensure
fields can open as soon as
possible.
He said engineers were
brought in again on Feb.
6 to look at the fields and
develop a longer-term plan
because “preliminary indications
say it’s going to
be a bigger issue than we
thought.”
Many in the audience
spoke about how they
were skeptical about the
district’s commitment and
plan to clean up and quickly
reopen the fields, which
also are used by local Little
League teams.
Amelia Goudzwaard,
captain of the school’s softball
team, said at least 10
inches of mud have spilled
onto the softball field and
dugout.
“At first the fields started
to get cleaned up by SM-
MUSD, but now the team
has been informed that the
fields will not be cleaned up
until the rains stop, which
will most likely not be until
the middle of the regular
season,” Goudzwaard said.
Goudzwaard said the
softball team has been having
difficulty practicing on
the school’s football field,
and the travel time is too
great and scheduling too
hard at Santa Monica High
School. She said many of
the athletes also lost their
homes in the fire and live
elsewhere, making the
commute to Santa Monica
even more difficult.
Max Gordon, a MHS
senior and baseball player,
said he would like to play
his last year at the high
school on the same field
he started out in while on
Little League. He said the
poor measures to prevent
mudslides on the campus
are “inexcusable.”
“Such subpar prevention
for the second wave of rain
we knew was coming is absurd
and disastrous,” Gordon
said.
Baseball coach Billy
Ashley said two storms occurred
with no sandbags in
place on campus. Then, he
said, insufficient K-rail barriers
were added that still
allowed mud to rush onto
campus.
Ashley said that the district’s
lack of work between
storms showed that Malibu
is a “forgotten entity” to the
district.
Others speakers questioned
why there aren’t
more sports facilities, especially
for softball, in the
city. One parent suggested
Malibu Bluffs Park fields
as an alternative.
Because the item was
non-agendized, the board
could not legally discuss
the complaints, but members
gave direction to staff
that clean up and prevention,
as well as finding alternatives
on where to play,
were priorities.
School Board Member
Jon Kean also suggested
the district should reach
out to the City of Malibu
to look at alternatives, such
as having the teams play at
Pepperdine University or
local private schools.
Malibu school safety plan
not up to snuff
The board also voted 6-1,
with Kean dissenting, to
approve the district’s Comprehensive
School Safety
Plan for each school except
those in Malibu.
Each school’s safety
plan is part of the district’s
Emergency Operations
Plan and is to be consistent
with state and national
emergency management
systems. They include responsibilities
of faculty and
staff during an emergency,
emergency procedures,
evacuation locations and
school maps.
The board first voted to
include Malibu schools
before Seth Jacobson,
chairman of the MHS Site
Council, said that the Malibu
plans were “incredibly
insufficient” and that it was
being passed as a consent
item without thought and
community involvement.
“It’s abysmal, it’s a joke,”
Jacobson said. “It just gets
me totally angry, especially
after we’ve been through.”
Jacobson said one example
of problems at MHS is
that there is no cell service.
“If there was an emergency
again, I couldn’t
reach my kids and they
can’t reach me,” Jacobson
warned. “Even the radios
the [administrators] have
Please see school, 13
School News
Pepperdine University
Student-athletes boast
collective 3.22 GPA
Fourteen Pepperdine student-athletes
earned a perfect
4.0 grade-point average,
while 70 percent earned
a GPA of 3.0 or greater and
34 percent earned a GPA of
3.5 or better.
Fifteen teams posted a
GPA better than 3.0, but
the women’s cross country
and track team did the best
of all with a 3.53 GPA and
63 percent of the 48 team
members earning a GPA of
3.50 or higher.
Beach volleyball and
swim and dive followed
with 3.40 GPAs, along with
47 percent of 19 and 48 percent
of 45 student-athletes,
respectively, above the 3.50
GPA mark. Other teams
that finished above a 3.0
included women’s tennis
(3.37), men’s cross country
and track (3.37), women’s
soccer (3.37), men’s golf
(3.32), women’s volleyball
(3.27), men’s tennis (3.21),
men’s volleyball (3.12),
baseball (3.11), women’s
golf (3.07) and women’s
basketball (3.0).
Further, the NCAA released
graduation success
rates in November, and the
Pepperdine Athletics Department
boasted an overall
GSR of 90 percent, up from
last year’s 89 percent and a
bit better than the national
average of 87 percent. The
newest GSR data covers
student-athletes enrolled between
2008 and 2011.
Five of the Waves’ programs
have had 100 percent
GSR rates for multiple
years: men’s golf, men’s
tennis, women’s tennis,
men’s volleyball and women’s
volleyball. Pepperdine’s
90 percent ranks tied
for fourth out of California’s
24 Division I universities.
Waves earn individual
honors
Women’s volleyball player
Hannah Frohling earned
a Google Cloud CoSIDA
Academic All-District 8
second team nod as well as
West Coast Conference All-
Academic first team honors.
Frohling’s teammates Heidi
Dyer, Alli O’Harra and
Jaiden Farr picked up honorable
mention status.
Women’s soccer players
Brielle Preece and Brie
Welch garnered WCC All-
Academic honors, with Preece
tabbing a first team nod
and Welch earning honorable
mention status.
Water polo players Michael
Dakis, Curtis Jarvis,
Mate Toth and Jacob
Watson earned GCC All-
Academic honors.
Cross country runners
Nick Heath and Tatum
Rask garnered WCC All-
Academic first team honors
this season. In addition,
Izabela Garcia-Arce, Cori
Persinger, Caroline Archer
and Lindsay Sanger
of the women’s squad, and
Adam Fahey, Alex Egan
and Preston Gromer for
the men, garnered honorable
mention status.
School News is compiled by
Editor Lauren Coughlin, lau
ren@malibusurfsidenews.com.