Felando Opposes New District for Miraleste

South Bay Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando has come out publicly in support of preserving a single unified school district on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which puts him at odds with an east-side group that wants to break away and set up a new district in the Miraleste area.

“Splitting the district in two would double the problems for everyone,” the San Pedro Republican told a meeting of Peninsula school district supporters Friday. “The funding is just not there to operate two small districts that can offer high-quality educational programs.”

At the same time, Felando, who is engaged in a hard-fought primary election battle with Deane Dana III for the Republican nomination in the 51st Assembly District, stressed his sympathy for east-side constituents who have been losing their local schools to declining enrollment.

Preserving a single unified district, he suggested, does not preclude the possibility of finding a way to keep Miraleste High School on the east side.

Apparent Departure

School district spokeswoman Nancy Mahr said school officials “welcome Mr. Felando’s statement of support for a single school district on the Peninsula. We’re very happy about it.”

Felando’s statement is an apparent departure from his earlier public position on the highly emotional issue of splitting the Peninsula district. Last December he cheered Miraleste boosters--and angered single-district supporters--by calling for a state review of how the district has handled its enrollment and financial problems.

On the secessionist side, Tom Jankovich, chairman of the East Peninsula Education Council, said Felando’s position will not hurt efforts to set up a separate district.

School officials say the 9,800-student district, which has lost more than 45% of its enrollment in the past 15 years, can no longer afford to maintain a high school on the sparsely populated east side.

Last November, the Peninsula school board voted to close Miraleste in June and reassign its students to the district’s two remaining high schools on the west side. The move prompted Miraleste parents to begin the secession fight.

Felando asked the state auditor general to scrutinize the school board’s decision to close Miraleste, in addition to the district’s overall management, procedural and fiscal practices. A report from the auditor is expected at the end of May.

Several of about 30 people at the gathering in a private home Friday questioned Felando sharply on his motives for asking for the audit. They said the audit added to the district’s paper work burden and would be unlikely to contribute to a resolution to the controversy over secession.

“An elected board makes the decisions that affect our schools,” one woman said. “The state auditor can’t tell us how to run the district.”

Felando agreed, but said he had been receiving “conflicting messages and accusations” from the two sides and wanted an outside expert to clarify the issues. He took the occasion to call for support of one of his pending bills, which he said would provide additional funding for school districts with declining enrollment--a problem that plagues most of the schools in the 51st Assembly District.

In a telephone interview Jankovich said the secession effort is forging ahead and its fate is now largely in the hands of the courts and county and state school officials. A Superior Court judge is expected to rule May 10 on the parent council’s request for a temporary injunction barring the district from closing Miraleste until the secession process has run its course.

The County School District Organization Committee, which reviews proposals for changes in existing school systems, is studying the plan to create a district on the east side. If it finds the idea feasible and educationally sound, the proposal will go to the state Board of Education. If the board sees enough merit in the proposal, it will be returned to the district for a final decision by the voters.

Jankovich said he didn’t know if Felando’s public opposition to a new district will affect his political support on the east side. “I certainly don’t have any hard feelings,” he said. “Jerry and I are friends.”