Peninsula School Board May Keep Miraleste Open

The Palos Verdes Peninsula school board, in a move aimed at ending the long and bitter battle over whether the district should be split, has offered to keep Miraleste High School open on the condition that students be allowed to enroll in the high school of their choice.

“We are offering to keep the school open with the added expense that brings to bring this issue to resolution,” school board President Jeffrey Younggren said in an interview Wednesday.

He added: “Let’s see if this works. Let’s stop the debate.”

Two leaders of the East Peninsula Education Council (EPEC), the parents’ group that has favored seceding from the district since the board decided in late 1987 to close Miraleste because of declining enrollment, greeted the offer with optimism.

Issues to Resolve

However, both said a number of specific issues would have to be resolved before the offer could become a reality.

“If they are really serious about settling and they want to keep Miraleste open, it is exciting,” Tom Jankovich, the group’s chairman, said. “It is about time they came to their senses.”

Jankovich said EPEC members will discuss the offer tonight. Nancy Mahr, spokeswoman for the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, said the matter will be discussed at the board’s next meeting Aug. 21.

The board voted 4 to 1 Monday to put forth the compromise. Marlys Kinnel voted against the compromise offer, saying more time was needed to study its ramifications.

The board’s peace offering comes less than two weeks after the State Board of Education issued a split decision on whether voters should be allowed to determine if a new district should be formed.

In a 5-3 vote, the board lined up against the idea, but six votes are needed before the panel’s decisions are binding. The board is scheduled to hear the matter again in September.

But even if the state panel had voted in favor of district officials, Miraleste would have remained open for the term that starts this fall under a court order overturning the decision to close the school.

The court order mandated that the school district produce an environmental impact report on school closings throughout the district. The district is in the process of preparing that report.

State Urged Action

Mahr said the board’s action this week was prompted by several state board members, who indicated they would like to see some movement on the part of either the local board or EPEC members in resolving the issue.

State board member Kenneth Peters, who favors the district’s position, said that whenever the board fails to issue a ruling, it is always the group’s “intent” that the opposing sides go back and try to work out the dispute among themselves.

“It is always much more desirable to try to work out a compromise,” Peters said, “to try to take a re-look. . . . Nothing would make me happier than to learn they worked it out at the local level.”

In a letter mailed to Jankovich this week, Younggren wrote that the district was willing to maintain an “active high school program at Miraleste if EPEC is willing to accept a proposal of open enrollment throughout the district allowing students to choose the school they want to go to.”

“With this proposal,” the letter continued, “it is clear that students who want a small high school experience can do so while those who hope to experience a more comprehensive program are given that option as well.”

Fewer Students

Besides Miraleste, the district operates two other high schools in Rolling Hills Estates and Palos Verdes Estates. Miraleste, with 632 students registered for next year, has less than half the student population of either of the other schools.

Jankovich said that while the compromise offer is appealing, he doesn’t believe an open enrollment policy would be good for the coming year. Miraleste should be given a chance to prove it can be successful and hopefully attract pupils from nearby private schools, he said.

Ted Gibbs, EPEC’s corporate secretary, said many unanswered questions remain with regard to the open enrollment issue. For example, it is unclear whether just freshmen would have the right to choose which high school they want to attend, or whether the policy would extend to all students.

Moreover, Gibbs said that before the compromise would be acceptable, board members would likely be asked to give some guarantee that Miraleste would remain open, providing a certain number of students remain in the school and the district.

Nevertheless, Gibbs termed the board’s offer a step in the right direction in resolving the acrimonious issue. “We are not going to sit on our hands and let the opportunity pass,” he said.