Schools to Discuss Unification

The boards of the four school districts that serve students in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach will meet jointly Monday in Manhattan Beach to discuss the issue of school district unification. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Elementary School cafetorium, 1214 Pacific Ave.

The Manhattan Beach City School District board--alarmed by the South Bay Union High School District’s recent decision to study the possible closure of one of its two high schools--voted two weeks ago to launch a petition drive for a unified kindergarten through 12th-grade school district that would include Mira Costa High School. The school, now part of the South Bay district, is in Manhattan Beach and serves students after they leave the city’s elementary schools.

The Redondo Beach City School District already is circulating petitions to unify its elementary district by taking in the high school district’s other campus, Redondo Union High School. That school is located in Redondo Beach.

The complex unification situation, under discussion for several years in the beach cities, was further complicated in March when the one-school Hermosa Beach City School District decided to shelve unification plans.

Earlier, the elementary school district had favored one unified district serving all four cities. However, Redondo Beach favored forming its own district, and Manhattan Beach favored creating a district that would join it with neighboring Hermosa Beach.

Hermosa Beach school trustees feared they would be swallowed up by the larger Manhattan Beach district but felt they would have a better voice in a four-city district.

The Monday meeting was called by Manhattan Beach to seek support for its unification plan from the high school district, according to Jerry Davis, superintendent of the Manhattan Beach district. But, he said, it also is an attempt “to get all the boards together and seek to cooperate.”