Court Rules District Can’t Cut 6th Grade at 2 Schools

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Friday that the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District cannot eliminate the sixth grade at two elementary schools and allow current fifth-graders to transfer to the school of their choice next fall.

The district, in a move aimed at saving money, wanted to close sixth-grade classes at Mira Catalina and Rancho Vista elementary schools, allowing the students to attend either Ridgecrest or Malaga Cove intermediate schools or Miraleste High School, where a sixth grade would have been created.

Judge Miriam Vogel said the plan conflicts with her 1988 ruling that prohibited the district from closing Miraleste or making changes in the school’s operations until after the district completes an environmental impact report on the effect of school closings districtwide in the last decade.

The district, which wants to close Miraleste because of declining enrollment, is preparing the report.

The plan would have saved the district nearly $200,000 because it would not need to buy portable classrooms at Mira Catalina and Rancho Vista to replace existing ones that do not meet state building codes, district officials said. The district faces a $2.9-million deficit in the $33-million budget that is proposed for the fiscal year beginning this July.