2 Proposals to Unify Beach City Schools May Go Before Voters : Education: Trustees suggest putting competing plans on the ballot. But state and county officials aren’t sure that it would be legal.

The beach city battle over school reorganization continued to heat up this week, as Hermosa Beach trustees proposed letting voters choose between two competing plans for reconfiguring the schools in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach.

The idea, discussed at the Hermosa Beach school board meeting Wednesday, was the latest twist in the two-year debate over whether the beach city schools should be reorganized into one umbrella district or two. Although the voters in the three cities ultimately will decide the so-called unification question, the school boards are politically deadlocked over what plan to put on the ballot.

State and county education officials said Hermosa Beach’s proposed compromise--putting both plans on the ballot--might be workable but needs more investigation.

“It’s not a bad idea. We just aren’t sure it’s legal,” said Marc Forgy, secretary to the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization.

There now are four school districts for the three cities: an elementary district in each city, and the South Bay Union High School District into which they feed. Unification has been under serious discussion among the districts since 1989, when the financially troubled high school district proposed merging with the elementary schools.

But longstanding rivalries among the three cities, combined with a fierce attachment to home rule, have blocked consensus.

Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach want to dismantle the high school district and the Hermosa Beach district and reorganize into two kindergarten-through-12th-grade school systems; with Hermosa joining the Manhattan Beach-based system.

Hermosa Beach wants to dismantle all four districts and create one unified district.

And the high school trustees have agreed to go along with whatever the elementary districts decide.

The process for reconfiguring school districts is complicated and bureaucratic and, unless all the affected school boards can agree on a proposal, requires a massive petition drive.

The State Board of Education, for example, must approve any reorganization plan before it can go to the voters, and to become eligible for such consideration, a plan must have either unanimous approval from the school boards involved or be accompanied by petitions bearing the signatures of 25% of the registered voters in the affected districts.

Moreover, because school management is such a complex issue, voters may have difficulty grasping its finer points. Advocates of a Redondo Beach kindergarten-through-12th-grade district, for example, have taken a year to collect just 6,000 of the 10,000 petition signatures they need.

The reason, said Redondo Beach board President Bart Swanson, is that the petition passers have had to spend an average of 20 minutes with each person they solicit, explaining how a school system is organized and managed.

If all four school boards could agree on a proposal, a ballot measure could go before beach city voters this year. If they have to go the petition route, the matter could take years to come to a vote, state and county officials said.

Hermosa Beach trustees said they proposed the compromise two-option ballot as a way out of the current stalemate.

“It may not be possible to iron out, but . . . (a two-option ballot) would solve a lot of problems,” said Hermosa Beach Trustee Joe Mark.

But reaction from other trustees is lukewarm.

“I personally don’t have any problem with putting both (proposals) on the ballot,” said Redondo Beach Trustee Swanson. “But as I remember it, we talked about that a long time ago, and we were left with the impression that it wasn’t legal.”

Manhattan Beach board President Barbara Dunsmoor said she, too, had problems with the Hermosa Beach plan.

“I’m not sure it’s a very good idea,” she said. “The issue is confusing enough. This would only make it more confusing.”

UNIFICATION AT A GLANCE

THE ISSUE:

Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach each have an elementary school district. When children in the three cities reach ninth grade, they are funneled into the separate South Bay Union High School District.

The high school district, however, has had financial problems, and the single K-8 school in Hermosa Beach is overcrowded and strapped for cash. All four districts agree reorganization is necessary, but they cannot agree on how to do it.

THE OPTIONS:

Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach favor split unification, in which two K-12 school systems would be created, one in each of those cities, and the high school district would be dismantled. Redondo Beach would take over Redondo Union High School, and Manhattan Beach would merge with Hermosa Beach and they would take over Mira Costa High School, which is in Manhattan Beach.

Hermosa Beach wants total unification, in which all four districts would merge along the boundaries of the high school district to create one 10,000-student, unified district.

(South Bay Union High School trustees initially wanted total unification but have since agreed to support any plan the elementary school boards can agree on.)

THE ARGUMENTS:

PRO: Split unification would protect local control for at least two of the districts while saving money through economies of scale. Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach already share a common approach to testing and educational programs. Hermosa Beach students could take advantage of the broader range of electives offered in Manhattan Beach.

CON: Hermosa Beach would become the only beach city to lose its home rule. About 500 students from North Redondo Beach, who now attend Mira Costa, would have to transfer to Redondo Union.

PRO: Total unification would allow efficient operation and the broadest educational options.

CON: All three cities would lose local control. The new district also would have to reconcile differences between Redondo Beach’s testing and educational philosophy, and that of Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach.