School Board OKs Hike in Ethnic Ratios : Education: The action involving 4 Valley campuses is designed to alleviate crowding in the inner city.

More minority students will be allowed to attend secondary schools and magnet programs in the San Fernando Valley this fall under a plan approved Monday by the Los Angeles Board of Education.

Beginning in August, ethnic ratios will be hiked to permit minority enrollment of up to 70% at William Howard Taft High School, in the math-science magnet program at Richard E. Byrd Junior High School in Sun Valley and in the gifted and high-ability magnet at Sepulveda Junior High School. The revised ratio will also be instituted in Pacoima Junior High School’s computer math and science magnet, and in its television, theater and fine arts magnet.

The campuses join more than 100 of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 625 schools that already boast a 70% minority limit--a target set six years ago to help the district place its minority students, who make up 87% of the district population. Presently, minority children on the designated campuses cannot make up more than 60% of the student body.

Monday’s action was designed to alleviate crowding in the district’s inner-city schools, which mainly serve minority children. At Taft in Woodland Hills, about 200 additional seats would become available for minority youths if needed, district officials said.

In the magnet programs, which students attend by application, minority enrollment will also be allowed to rise.

Approval of the plan followed studies conducted by the district to canvass school, community and parental opinion. According to guidelines based on a landmark California desegregation case, increasing minority enrollment to 70% at schools that have never implemented as high a ratio can be done only if the community says it would not perceive such a school to be racially segregated.

The district was also required to analyze the racial composition of each school’s staff and the ethnic makeup of students who participate in athletics and other extracurricular activities.