Lawsuit Filed Over San Gabriel Students : Education: Board seeks to overturn 1992 decision that would let system have its own high school. Alhambra officials say move would upset racial balance of their district.

A 2-year-old dispute between the San Gabriel and Alhambra school districts over who should educate San Gabriel high school students simmered down on one front Tuesday while it boiled over on another.

The Alhambra Board of Education decided to sue the State Board of Education to overturn a 1992 election that permits San Gabriel to have its own high school. About 1,200 San Gabriel students now attend high school in the Alhambra school district because the San Gabriel system has yet to build a high school.

The fate of the San Gabriel high school students has been settled for the next academic year, however. The Alhambra school board unanimously agreed Tuesday to continue educating the students for at least another year.

The Alhambra lawsuit threatens San Gabriel’s plans to educate the high school students, beginning with ninth-graders in 1994. The district now teaches kindergarten through eighth grade.

San Gabriel school officials, and many parents in the district, say a high school would give students continuity in their educations. School officials plan to build a school once voters approve a bond measure to finance construction.

Diane Biagianti, a lawyer representing the Alhambra district, said the suit seeks to overturn the 1992 election because voters in the Alhambra high school district were excluded from voting, even though they would be affected by the result. Voters in the San Gabriel elementary district were the sole participants in that election.

According to Biagianti, the racial balance of Alhambra’s San Gabriel High School would be upset if San Gabriel students left the district.

Alhambra Supt. Heber J. Meeks said Alhambra also opposed unification on educational grounds. “We feel we offer an outstanding educational program to the kids now, and there’s no need to have another high school,” he said. The suit was filed in Superior Court on June 9.

In other action, the San Gabriel school board on Monday decided to wait until after November’s election to put a bond measure on the ballot to pay for a new high school.

Goodson said the November ballot contained controversial measures, and San Gabriel did not want to risk rejection from voters turning down other proposals.