Roberti Declares Support for New School Districts : Education: State senator calls proposed Valley secession ‘an idea whose time has come’ in wake of remapping. However, he sees it as a long-term strategy.

State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) on Monday called a separate San Fernando Valley school district “an idea whose time has come,” adding his voice to those of parents and community activists who advocate secession from the massive Los Angeles school system.

Roberti, the Senate president pro tem, said the Los Angeles Unified School District--which covers more than 700 square miles and serves 640,000 students--has grown too large to be responsive to parents, especially those far from downtown and the hub of educational policy setting.

“Many people, especially the education activists and parents in the schools, are just frustrated,” said Roberti, who began representing the central and southern Valley after a tough race earlier this year.

“They feel that they have a diminishing impact on the education of their children, and I think they’re correct. The decision-making process . . . is just so far removed.”

He added a note of caution, however, pointing out that “there are legal, fiscal and contractual obstacles that are very, very great. So I don’t think that people should think this’ll happen overnight.”

Roberti’s comments followed a call from community leaders to revive the idea of breaking up the district as a result of an acrimonious redistricting battle that eliminated one of two Valley-based school board seats. On Monday, board member Julie Korenstein, whose West Valley constituency was reconfigured to stretch from Porter Ranch to Los Angeles International Airport, also voiced support for a Valley district.

Roberti met with Korenstein, longtime Valley-based board member Roberta Weintraub and about two dozen parents and community activists during the weekend to sound out the idea. The meeting was at the request of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, a business coalition that last week voted unanimously to pursue a break with the school district.

Roberti acknowledged that previous attempts have failed, but he said the recent redistricting controversy lent the issue renewed urgency.

“We’ve got to give it another try,” he said. “We’ve got to look at it. Something’s not functioning. This is an idea whose time has come.”

In the past, secession movements have run up against daunting questions of how to apportion personnel, students, debts and property should the district be divided into smaller zones. Critics have also cited the huge start-up costs attached to creating a new school bureaucracy.

But Roberti said new, smaller districts would be a wiser investment and would pay off in the long run with a rejuvenation of confidence in public education and the return of youngsters who have been enrolled in private schools by disaffected parents.

He also dismissed concerns that a Valley school district constituted a deliberate ploy to shut out minority children, who now represent more than 85% of the district’s student population.

“The Valley is every bit as diverse as every other place on Earth--certainly as much as the city side,” he said. “So to argue that it’s a segregated area is really to quibble with meaningless fractions of numbers.”

Proponents of the breakup concede that the plan faces an uphill climb, particularly because of a “procedural gantlet”--including approval by a majority of the district’s 1.5 million voters. Robert L. Scott, president of the United Chambers, said his organization enlisted the support of Roberti and several other Valley lawmakers so that some of the hurdles might be cleared more quickly, perhaps through legislation.

“It’s got to go to Sacramento to bring the rules into some semblance of reason, to allow the democracy to work on a local level,” Scott said.

But Roberti stressed that a divorce from Los Angeles Unified was a long-term solution. In the short run, he said, his plan was to try to increase the number of school board seats for the Valley’s benefit.

Korenstein, who has opposed a split with the district, said she now supports the effort after watching the board throw its weight behind the remap plan, which she fought.

“The main philosophy is, the greatest responsibility is to the city of Los Angeles, leaving the Valley orphaned,” said Korenstein, who faces an election battle next year with fellow board member Mark Slavkin as a result of the redistricting. “That’s the way I’ve seen it for five years.”