Conflicts With City Charter : Drive for Parent Veto Over Year-Round School Falters

Plans for a citywide June vote on year-round schools were placed on hold Tuesday when parents learned that a Los Angeles city attorney’s opinion found their initiative petitions in conflict with the City Charter.

Proponents of the proposed June ballot measure wanted the City Council to force the Los Angeles Board of Education to hold elections at each campus considered for year-round schedules. But the City Charter does not give the Council the jurisdiction to do so, according to George G. Buchanan, an assistant city attorney specializing in legislative matters.

“The Charter limits the council’s power to ordinances on city matters,” Buchanan said. Year-round schools are “school board policy and the City Council does not have jurisdiction over school board policy.”

Backs District Research

Buchanan’s opinion supports previously published school district research that stated it would be almost impossible for petitioners to be successful.

Ballot measure proponents are parents, led by a group in the San Fernando Valley, opposed to having schools operate on year-round calendars. Officials of the Los Angeles Unified School District have said they have no choice because of overcrowding and a rapidly growing student population.

Jackie Brainard, spokeswoman for the ballot-measure proponents, Parents for Neighborhood Schools, called the city attorney’s decision “a setback” for the group. But she said the group will continue to circulate petitions in hopes of getting the measure on a countywide ballot in 1988. Brainard believes school district cooperation would not be required for the county ballot.

Will Explore Challenges

Additionally, Brainard said, the group will look at what kind of legal challenges it may initiate against the city attorney’s decision.

“Obviously, the city attorney is taking a conservative position, but this is just one attorney’s opinion,” Brainard added.

Buchanan said the measure could be placed on the June, 1987, municipal ballot only if the school board asks that it be added. The Los Angeles school district does not hold its own elections but “piggybacks” its elections with Los Angeles municipal elections.

However, there is little likelihood that the school board would make such a request. The board has just completed a tumultuous month of hearings and debate on whether to add additional schools to the year-round schedule next year. While the board recently took alternative steps, including adding portable classrooms and changing ethnic ratios to make room for more students at some campuses, officials made it clear those steps alone will not be enough.

Schedule to Be Announced

And to show that year-round calendars will become a reality on every campus throughout the district, the board also voted to announce a list of schools that will start on year-round schedules on July 1, 1988.

The board’s commitment to districtwide year-round schools is one reason Brainard said the group probably will not ask the board to put their measure on the ballot.

Board President Rita Walters agreed that it is doubtful the board would ask the City Council to put the petitioners’ measure on the ballot.

“The law gives us authority to act responsibly when it comes to housing children so they may get an education,” Walters said Tuesday. “I think we have acted responsibly and responsively to this problem.”