P.V. Peninsula District Has 2 Plans for Miraleste : School’s Future Hangs on Ruling Today

Two computer disks.

The first is labeled “Miraleste closed.” The second “Miraleste open.”

And today an appellate court is expected to decide, in effect, which disk will be used by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District in scheduling the location of classes for its 3,900 high school students this fall.

Projected Enrollment

If Disk No. 1 is used, there will be no Miraleste High School on the east side of the peninsula. Its students will be reassigned to campuses on the west side.

If Disk No. 2 is used, Miraleste will be back in operation for at least another year with a projected enrollment of 820 high school students and 277 in grades seven and eight. The campus began a 7th-through-12th grade configuration last year in an attempt to boost total enrollment.

The 9,800-student district started its two-track preparations after a May 10 decision by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miriam Vogel voided the school board’s decision to close Miraleste permanently at the end of the school year last month. If Miraleste is to be closed, she ruled, the district must first weigh the environmental impact of shutting that campus after a series of other school closures on the east side.

The two computer versions are just one of a number of duplicate plans involving teachers, budgets, classroom uses and the like that school administrators have been juggling.

Vogel’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the East Peninsula Education Council, a Miraleste parents group fighting to keep the local high school open while it tries to break away and establish a separate school system on the east side.

Decision Appealed

The district, which expected to save about $1 million annually in operating costs by closing Miraleste, appealed Vogel’s decision, a process that could take up to a year. That delay would have the practical effect of keeping Miraleste open, so the district asked the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles to stay Vogel’s order until the appeal can be heard.

A 3-judge panel is expected to decide the issue by the end of the day.

“We’re ready to go either way,” district spokeswoman Nancy Mahr said. “The Miraleste question has been up in the air for months, and when the decision is made, we will need to move ahead quickly to ensure an orderly beginning to the new school year.”

The district staff--which Mahr said was already overburdened with work generated by lawsuits, negotiations and state investigations--also prepared two budgets marked “Miraleste closed” and “Miraleste open.” Both add up to $35.2 million.

If the appellate court says Miraleste must remain open, the district will adopt a budget for 1988-89 that cuts $900,000 in programs the district otherwise would have had, she said.

Among proposed cuts, Mahr said, are reductions in athletic programs and in equipment and supply expenditures, fewer reading resource teachers, dropping instrumental music instruction at the grade-school level, and eliminating several staff jobs. A salary increase for non-teaching employees, contingent on Miraleste closing, will also be called off, she said.

The school board has scheduled a special meeting for 7:30 p.m. Monday at district headquarters to set priorities for the cuts, if they become necessary, and to review next year’s budget in detail. At the same time Tuesday, the trustees will review the district’s goals and objectives. Mahr said residents are invited to participate in both sessions.

Mahr said the board is also open to proposals that might ease the problems caused for east side parents by closing Miraleste. One plan under consideration is to reopen the Miraleste Elementary School campus, across the street from the high school, as an intermediate school for east side students.