P.V. District Offers to Bus Students if Group Drops Miraleste Efforts

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District has offered to bus intermediate students to west-side schools if a group of east-side community leaders abandon their effort to keep Miraleste High School open.

The proposal, which came at a school board budget workshop Monday night, is an effort to reconcile with the East Peninsula Education Council, a community group fighting in court to keep Miraleste open.

Ted Gibbs, a spokesman for the group, said in an interview that members have not discussed the proposal but he believes they will reject it.

“It is either the height of arrogance or the height of naivete to think that after all this trouble and time we will drop everything,” he said. “They are saying, ‘Accept Miraleste’s closure and we’ll throw you a few bones.’ This proposal is just a bone.”

Fighting for Months

The school district and the east-side group have been fighting a court battle for months over Miraleste. The district says it cannot afford to keep the school open because of declining enrollment. The east-side group notes that four east-side schools have closed since 1980 and contends that the closure of Miraleste would “eliminate reasonably accessible schools,” as Gibbs put it.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled May 10 that the school must remain open until the district conducts an environmental impact report on the combined effect of the closures of Miraleste and the four other schools. On Friday, a state appellate court denied the district’s appeal of that ruling.

Board member Jeff Younggren suggested the bus offer as a way to persuade Miraleste supporters to drop their effort. Younggren also proposed that the district improve education by adding a seventh period to the intermediate-school day, on the condition that the east-side group drop its court battle.

The proposal came as the district decided on more program and staffing cuts to offset the loss of $900,000 that the district would have saved if Miraleste had been allowed to close. The combined cost of busing the east-side intermediate students--the district currently has no buses--and the extra period would be about $500,000, district spokeswoman Nancy Mahr said.

If the proposal is accepted, the savings from closing the school would be used, among other things, to improve fringe benefits and salaries for the staff, Supt. Jack Price said.

Among a number of other program and staff cuts, the revised budget calls for cutting three reading teachers, two instrumental music teachers, one assistant superintendent, three contingency positions and about $200,000 worth of supplies.

During the meeting, several teachers and students asked that the district reconsider the cuts to the schools’ music programs.

District board members said that if the state Legislature passes Senate Bill 2084, which provides funds for districts with declining enrollment, some of the programs and staff will be restored. The bill is expected to provide the Palos Verdes district with $500,000, Price said.

Board member Sally Burrage said during the meeting that regardless of the outcome of the court battle, the education of the students in the district is going to be hurt.

“The losers in this whole thing are the children, no matter what happens,” she said.

Gibbs of the east-side group agreed but said the district was at fault because “closing schools is a simplistic solution to bad financial planning.”

Meanwhile, the district will continue its appeal of the Superior Court ruling, but it is not expected to be heard for about a year.