School Boards in Beach Cities Fail to Agree on Plan for Merging Districts : Education: If the stalemate is not resolved, school officials in each city will probably pursue petition drives on various alternatives.

The beach city battle over school reorganization reached a stalemate this week, as trustees from the four school districts serving Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach failed to reach agreement on a plan for consolidating the schools.

“We’re back to ground zero,” declared Redondo Beach Board President Bart Swanson upon hearing that none of the other districts was prepared to compromise on a merger plan.

The trustees said they will continue to negotiate, although none appeared ready to change positions.

The latest chapter in a two-year debate on whether the beach city school systems should be merged unfolded during the joint meeting Monday of elementary trustees from the three cities and the board of the South Bay Union High School District, which is the secondary school district that the three cities already share. The three cities are served by four small districts that have all suffered a general decline in enrollment in recent years and that have all had to close schools. However, each of the cities has clung fiercely to local control.

Twice in the mid-1960s and again in 1972, the districts were encouraged by state education officials to merge, but each time the proposal--always for a single, unified umbrella district--was voted down at the polls.

The most recent proposal was raised in 1989 by the financially troubled high school district. But school officials again have been unable to achieve consensus and are split on what plan, if any, they should present to local voters.

Redondo Beach trustees would like to create two consolidated, kindergarten through 12th-grade districts--one in Redondo Beach and another for the other two cities. Under that plan, the high school district would be dismantled, the Redondo Beach district would be built around Redondo Union High School, and Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach would become the centerpiece for the Manhattan-Hermosa District.

Manhattan Beach trustees also back that plan, and the high school district has pledged to support any plan on which the elementary districts can agree.

But Hermosa Beach trustees have refused to endorse the two-district plan, throwing their support instead behind the idea of a single district.

There had been some talk of putting both plans on a single ballot and allowing voters to choose, but Manhattan Beach trustees oppose the idea, saying it would only add confusion to an already-complex debate.

If the boards agree on a plan, county and state education officials could automatically begin hearings that must precede any ballot measure.

Without agreement, however, the trustees must now go forward with competing petition drives in order to bring their proposals to the appropriate state and county authorities.

That, they say, could set back the process by a year or more.