Beach Cities School Merger May Be Inching Closer

Unification of the four beach city school districts, an idea that has been debated, rejected and debated again for decades, may be inching closer to reality, school officials say.

Residents in Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach have recently submitted separate petitions to the county Office of Education to get the issue on the ballot in those cities.

A third effort, launched by school trustees in the four affected districts and not requiring residents’ signatures, will be considered by the county Committee on School District Organization in the coming weeks.

Unification has been considered in the beach cities for more than 30 years and in earnest since 1989, when the South Bay Union High School District invited the three elementary districts in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach to consider merging to shore up sagging finances and enrollments in all the districts.

But rivalries among the three cities have prevented a consensus. Redondo Beach trustees, for instance, decided soon after the talks began to create their own unified district. The other three districts hired a consultant, who supported “split unification.”

That scheme would create two kindergarten-through-12th-grade school systems, one in Redondo Beach and one in Manhattan Beach. Redondo Beach would take over Redondo Union High School; Manhattan Beach would merge with Hermosa Beach, and those two districts would take over Mira Costa High School, which is in Manhattan Beach.

Hermosa Beach had originally favored total unification, in which all four districts would merge into one 10,000-student district. But in February, Hermosa trustees decided to leave the unification talks and remain a separate elementary school district.

The Hermosa board will take up the matter again Oct. 9 and decide on one of the three unification drives currently under way, according to Hermosa Supt. Elaine Gourley.

All three unification drives would essentially create split unification districts.

Redondo Beach’s plan would combine the Redondo Beach City School District and Redondo Union High School and allow Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach to decide what to do with Mira Costa High School.

Manhattan Beach’s plan would merge Manhattan Beach City School District with Mira Costa High School, leaving Redondo and Hermosa to decide their own fates.

The third effort, launched by the trustees, is a combination of these two plans. It would create two separate K-12 districts in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach and leave the K-8 Hermosa Beach district to decide whether to contract with one or both high schools.

All three plans must be reviewed and approved by the county Committee on School District Organization and the state Board of Education. Public hearings are held throughout the process.

If the state board approves any of the plans, it will call an election in the communities affected by the proposed unification. Unification will become reality if a majority of voters approve the proposal.

Redondo Beach residents last week presented county education officials with a petition containing 8,800 signatures, more than the required 25% of the registered voters. County officials are verifying the signatures.

Manhattan Beach residents had submitted 6,700 signatures to the county last month, but officials discovered that the petition did not have enough signatures from the El Porto area, which is in the city of Manhattan Beach but sends its students to the El Segundo Unified School District.

If the Manhattan Beach plan is approved, students living in El Porto would attend Manhattan Beach schools. Residents submitted additional signatures from El Porto, and Manhattan Beach Supt. Jerry Davis said the petition now has enough signatures.

Although the beach cities’ unification efforts have picked up speed in recent months, county consultant Jim Marlatt said this week that resolution is probably at least two years away. The earliest the issue could go before the voters is November, 1992.

Advocates of the three plans are optimistic that if the issue is put on the ballot, voters will a reverse a string of defeats for unification. Between 1965 and 1972, voters considered and rejected three beach city school unification measures.

BACKGROUND

Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach have separate elementary school districts. When children in the three cities reach the ninth grade, they move on to the South Bay Union High School District. The high school district, however, has had financial problems, and the single kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in Hermosa Beach is overcrowded. It is generally agreed that some reorganization is necessary, but the four districts cannot agree on how to do it. Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach have favored 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. Manhattan Beach would merge with Hermosa Beach and they would take over Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach. Until recently, Hermosa Beach has favored total unification, in which all four districts would merge to create one 10,000-student district. But earlier this year, Hermosa trustees said they want to maintain their own district no matter what the other districts decide. South Bay Union High School trustees first supported total unification but have since agreed to support any plan the elementary boards can agree on.