Hearing Scheduled Jan. 26 : School Board to Review Student’s Status

A Burbank school board candidate, accused of maintaining a phony residence so his son can attend a local school, will get a second chance to prove that he lives in the city, district officials said Friday.

The announcement came in Burbank Superior Court, where Judge Thomas C. Murphy had agreed to hear evidence from S. Michael Stavropoulos, who late last month filed as a candidate in the Feb. 28 school board race.

But the dispute will return to the district because the board agreed to consider Stavropoulos’ case at a Jan. 26 hearing.

The board in October decided that Stavropoulos’ 14-year-old son could not attend John Muir Junior High School because the family did not live in Burbank. District officials visited the home in the 600 block of East Walnut Avenue where Stavropoulos said he lived but were not convinced that he did reside there because another family’s pictures were in the home, said John Wagner, an attorney for the school district.

Stavropoulos then filed a lawsuit against the district and won a temporary injunction that allows his son to continue attending Muir until the case is heard in court. A date has not been set for that suit, said David Romley, Stavropoulos’ attorney.

“I sleep there, I eat there, I get up there in the morning and go to work; what more do they need to know?” said Stavropoulos, a doctor.

But Wagner said investigators hired by the district found that Stavropoulos and his son were frequently seen at a Los Angeles home. “The evidence suggests that he is not a resident,” Wagner said.

District officials said Stavropoulos’ son attended Muir during the 1987-88 school year.

Last spring, after an altercation with another youth, he told authorities that he lived at a Los Angeles address.

He was allowed to finish the school year but was denied permission to return in September.

Stavropoulos said he moved to a house in Burbank in 1988, but could not remember the month.

He said he later purchased the home on East Walnut Avenue and moved there Sept. 13.

District investigators said Stavropoulos has listed a Los Angeles address as his home in tax documents recently filed with the county.

Burbank City Clerk Merle Woodburn said school board candidates are required to sign an affidavit swearing that they are residents of the city.

“For candidates, I take at face value the documents they sign,” Woodburn said.

But because of the publicity surrounding the dispute, Woodburn said, her office will conduct its own residency investigation if Stavropoulos is elected.