Miraleste’s Fate Still Uncertain : Peninsula District Will Appeal School Ruling

The fate of Miraleste High School remained in doubt last week as the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District instructed its lawyers to appeal a court order that would prevent officials from closing the campus, one of three high schools in the district.

“At this point, no one knows for sure whether Miraleste will stay open next fall,” said district spokeswoman Nancy Mahr. “It’s up in the air.”

Separate System

Ted Gibbs, a spokesman for a Miraleste parents group that wants to break away and form a separate school system on the east side of the Peninsula, said “there is no doubt that Miraleste will be open when our kids return to school in September.”

The parents group wants to keep the school open to maintain interest among parents and students in forming a new school district.

He acknowledged a “theoretical possibility” that the district could successfully appeal the order by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miriam Vogel.

Time Factor

But as a practical matter, he said, there is not enough time for the district to get even a “quickie appeal” heard in a higher court before school officials must complete district plans for the fall semester.

Gibbs also cited language in the final draft of Vogel’s May 10 ruling, which he said reinforces the position of his group, the East Peninsula Education Council. Among other things, the ruling instructs the school board to cancel its Nov. 3 resolution to close Miraleste.

Trustees have until Friday to respond to the ruling. The district decided to close Miraleste, which has 1,200 students in the seventh through 12th grades, because of the district’s declining enrollment. If the school is closed, students would attend intermediate and high schools elsewhere on the Peninsula. Mira Catalina Elementary would be the only public school remaining in the east peninsula.

Novel Interpretation

The main thrust of Vogel’s ruling is that before deciding to close Miraleste, the district should have considered the cumulative environmental effect of shutting down a string of east-side schools during the past decade.

District officials argue that the judge gave a novel interpretation to the state’s Environmental Quality Act, which generally exempts school systems from filing reports before undertaking projects that may substantially affect the surrounding environment.

Meanwhile, school financial planners are preparing an alternative 1988-89 budget that will be used if the district is not successful in appealing Vogel’s ruling before classes begin. It projects a deficit of $783,000 in a total budget of $31.3 million after taking into account a $1.2 million loss of savings with Miraleste remaining open.

Mahr said a balance of $1.3 million is expected in the current budget, but most of that must be set aside as a surplus for contingencies. Under county edict, the district must have a contingency fund of 3% of its total budget, or $940,000. There are no provisions in the alternative budget for teacher and other employee salary raises, she said.

Officials are reviewing possible program and other cuts needed to balance the budget, she said.