Eastview Residents File Petition to Leave L.A. School District

Residents living in the Eastview section of Rancho Palos Verdes have taken a formal step in their drive to secede from the Los Angeles Unified School District and join the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District.

A petition bearing an estimated 2,100 signatures was filed this week with county education officials by members of Residents for Unified Local Education. At least 25% of the about 4,400 registered voters in Eastview must have signed the petition if the secession drive is to move forward.

If the county registrar of voters verifies that the necessary signatures were collected and if the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization approves the group’s request, the matter will be put before voters. The committee would decide whether all residents of the affected school districts will vote on the issue or only those living in the Eastview area.

The petition was filed Monday, one day before Palos Verdes school board members, beset with declining enrollment and budget woes, voted to shut down two of the district’s three high schools in June. One of the high schools slated to be shut is Miraleste, which is located near Eastview.

Under the plan adopted, all the district’s ninth- through 12th-graders--an estimated 3,000 students--will attend Rolling Hills High School beginning next fall. The school will be renamed.

A district spokeswoman said that a 2-year-old study counted 160 ninth- through 12th-graders residing in the Eastview section. That would not be enough to alter the consolidation plan and keep another high school open, she said.

Kari Tapie, a member of Residents for Unified Local Education, said the consolidation plan would not affect the group’s effort to secede from the Los Angeles district.

“We are going to proceed full steam ahead,” Tapie said. “We feel in order to become a full part of the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, we need to be part of the district.”

Tapie said it is not known exactly how many schoolchildren live in the Eastview area, which was annexed by Rancho Palos Verdes in 1982. However, the number is believed to be about 1,000, she said.