Secession in Wind as Lomita Schools Claim Neglect by L.A. District

Charging that this small community’s schools have been neglected by their massive governing bureaucracy, residents and city officials have launched an effort to secede from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

A group of parents, community leaders and city officials two weeks ago formed a 14-member committee that has begun pushing for the creation of an autonomous school district that would oversee Lomita’s estimated 2,037 students, most of whom are taught in three Lomita schools. The students are part of the Los Angeles system--a 578,000-pupil district that is the nation’s second largest.

The newly formed group, called the Committee to Reorganize Lomita’s Schools, first publicized its proposal at a meeting Nov. 14 with Los Angeles school board member John Greenwood, who represents the southern part of the district. Greenwood said in an interview last week that Lomita has not been neglected and he was “flabbergasted” by the proposal to secede. He maintained that secession is not necessary, could be interpreted as racially motivated in the predominantly white community, and “isn’t going to happen.”

Community Meeting

Despite Greenwood’s objections, the Lomita school committee has set a community meeting at City Hall Dec. 3 to garner response from other Lomita residents and to enlist support for its effort. None of Lomita’s three PTAs has taken a position on the issue, but it is unanimously supported by the City Council.

The committee plans to distribute petitions at the meeting, which--if signed by at least 25% of Lomita’s estimated 10,000 registered voters--will formally initiate secession proceedings with the county Committee on School District Organization.

“We want to improve our schools and take care of our own,” said Lomita Councilman Leonard Loy. “We feel that as Lomita residents, we could probably handle things better ourselves. . . . We have a faraway government now that doesn’t even know our area.”

Although details of a proposed secession have not been worked out, Lomita school committee Chairman Robert Hargrave said it is possible that the community would attempt to use the district’s three Lomita schools--Eshelman Avenue and Lomita Fundamental elementary schools and Fleming Junior High School--to house all of Lomita’s students, including high school students, who currently attend Narbonne High in Harbor City. The three schools can accommodate 2,926 students, or about 900 more than Lomita has.

The extra space, Hargrave said, could be used by the Los Angeles system’s students. What is important to the group, he said, is that the schools be governed locally.

Secession Not New Idea

Hargrave said Lomita residents and city officials have long discussed withdrawing from the Los Angeles school district, but he said that the recent effort is the first formal move toward secession and is fueled mostly by “an accumulation of frustration.”

Some of that frustration, residents say, comes from Lomita children being turned away from a neighborhood school, Lomita Fundamental, a so-called “magnet school.” Magnet schools offer special programs that are designed to attract students from other areas and balance the racial and ethnic mix of the school district. Students must apply for admittance.

About 50 students who would have gone to Lomita Fundamental if it were a neighborhood school must attend President Avenue School in Harbor City instead, said President Avenue Principal Mary Rose Pasic. About 400 of Lomita Fundamental’s 722 students are bused in from other areas, said Lomita Principal Meno Phillips.

School committee members say that frustration over student assignments has been augmented by dismay over the reassignment of several highly regarded Lomita school administrators--at least one because of a promotion--which occurred without consulting the community and, at times, by installing administrators who residents claim are less competent.

Financial Problems

Committee members also charge that the Los Angeles district is so far removed from local problems and so financially strapped that it takes years to repair deficiencies in Lomita’s schools. For example, they said, window maintenance and painting at Lomita’s Fleming Junior High School had been postponed for several years because of the district’s financial strains. Those improvements are now under way, said Principal Janet Bouska.

Proponents of secession say a small, local school system would provide better financial management with more sensitivity to the needs of the 1.97-square-mile city of about 20,000.

“The size of the Los Angeles school district contributes to waste,” said Hargrave, the school committee chairman, who also is a Lomita councilman. “If we had local control we could spend the money in a more frugal fashion. The City Council in Lomita pinches pennies and watches every dime that is spent. We could probably spend the money in better way because we are closer to the problem and can see the waste better.”

“One of the reasons Lomita incorporated was to maintain its country, small-town environment,” said Councilman Harold Croyts. “We have already done that with our city government, and we would like to do that with our own school district.”

The depth of sentiment for creating a new school system, some say, is illustrated by recent efforts by one group of Lomita citizens to secede from the city itself because of its connection with the Los Angeles school system. Although secession efforts by the Rolling Ranchos Homeowners Assn. died six months ago because of technical problems, many members of the group remain concerned about the school issue, a leader in the homeowners group said.

“What we basically were looking for was a change in school districts,” said Bob Gorman, a leader in the homeowners group and a Lomita resident for 15 years. “I think this is fantastic. If this goes through, I think we can certainly raise the quality of education and make the schools better suited for the residents of Lomita.”

Many committee members do not blame Greenwood personally for the neglect they see. They say he is only one vote of seven on the Los Angeles School Board.

“The powers that make the decisions are just too far away in geography and spirit for Lomita residents to have much impact on their decisions,” said Peter D. Pettler, a father of two and a Lomita resident for eight years. “It’s hard for them to be responsive. A smaller school district could be more responsive.”

Called Overreaction

But Greenwood insisted that the large school district has been responsive. What’s more, he said, the Lomita effort to secede is a dramatic overreaction to the kinds of small problems that every area of the school district faces.

“I think it’s stupid,” Greenwood said. “I think you deal with problems like they’re talking about by picking up the phone. . . . What they’re doing is like going after a fly with a cannon. It’s not the kind of thing you secede over. . . .

“I always thought Lomita was a model of good communication. City Council members have never been reticent to pick up the phone and call me.”

More than being just a bad idea, Greenwood said, the proposal is not going to work because it would be considered racially motivated. (The Los Angeles district is 82% minority, but whites account for 38.3% of the student population in Fleming Junior High, 39% in Lomita Fundamental and 53.3% in Eshelman Avenue, according to school district figures.)

“Given the fact that the school district is under an integration order, I do not think it would be allowed by the courts for a part of the district that is predominantly white to secede,” he said. “ . . . I am absolutely convinced that it would be considered an act of segregation.”

In fact, Lomita City Atty. Leland C. Dolley said in a written opinion late last year, when the City Council was considering the secession question, that a “potential practical problem is that the (state) statute requires a finding that the petition is not motivated by a racially discriminatory purpose. While it seems clear that the city does not have such a purpose, the possibility exists that the city’s opposition to busing in the late 1970s will be rehashed before the (state Board of Education) hearings.”

“It’s unfortunate,” Hargrave said, “that this would get taken as something that has racial overtones. . . . I don’t think there are any racial considerations in what we’re doing. It’s an issue of local control.”

Besides the racial implications, Greenwood said, “I do not believe that a district that small would be feasible on a cost basis. It just doesn’t make sense.” In response, Hargrave said the South Pasadena School District has only 2,300 students and is “doing fine.”

Based on the experience of one school that seceded several years ago from the Compton district to the Los Angeles system, Hargrave said he does not believe that an independent Lomita district would have to buy buildings from the Los Angeles district. Greenwood said he is unfamiliar with the law, and state officials could not be reached for comment.

Some Limitations

Many supporters acknowledged that secession has drawbacks such as limiting the variety of courses offered in schools and, perhaps, decreasing the number of extracurricular activities.

If the committee collects the necessary signatures, the county Committee on School District Organization will undertake a study and hold public hearings on the feasibility of secession, said Richard Wales, director of school organization and elections for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Wales said the committee would then draw up a tentative plan of secession, after which more public hearings would be held and the county committee would make a recommendation to the state Board of Education.

The state board would consider the matter, whether or not it is approved by the county, if Lomita’s petition were technically adequate, Wales said. If the state board approved the secession, a vote would be held. (The state board would decide which area would vote on the matter--the entire Los Angeles school district or just Lomita.) If voters approved, the secession would be implemented.

This process, Wales said, could take 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years and involve as many as 24 public hearings. He also said many proposals for secession die because they fail to meet strict state criteria on such matters as school district impact, racial balance and geographic isolation.