Board Agrees to Public Airing of Breakup Plan : Schools: Mark Slavkin says major issues will be openly debated, with lobbyists to make district’s stands clear to lawmakers.

One day after two state legislators announced plans to dismantle the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Board of Education agreed Thursday to let the issue have a full--and unusual--public airing.

The school board will hold a public hearing on the breakup legislation, then will take a formal position in the next several weeks.

As part of a new strategy, board President Mark Slavkin said major political issues will be debated--in public--and that the board will direct its lobbyists to make those positions clear in Sacramento.

“The board members should have a voice and be clear on where they stand on issues like this,” he said. “I think it’s very appropriate that the Los Angeles community be engaged about what they want in these issues. We’ll have, I think, a significant debate on this one.”

Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) and state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) discussed their joint plans at a news conference Wednesday. Boland plans to introduce legislation that would both reduce the number of voters’ signatures required to get the proposal on the ballot and remove the school board’s power to veto a breakup plan.

Hayden’s legislation, which would establish a committee to devise a breakup proposal, would also require such a plan to incorporate existing court orders over such things as desegregation.

Boland said Thursday that the public hearing would be useless if it is held Downtown because it is too far removed from parents and students, and that she is unsure whether she would attend.

“That’s the problem--everything is Downtown and people have to drive 40 miles to talk about their kids,” she said. “I think they (school board members) are real concerned that the people’s voices might be heard. They’re running around trying to counteract that.”

But board members and district officials defended the idea of holding a public meeting on the breakup legislation, saying they believe that the issue must be debated in the open rather than just having lobbyists directed--in private--to take positions in Sacramento.

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Said Assistant Supt. Ron Prescott, the district’s chief lobbyist: “This is an unusual break from tradition. But I think this is the way we should do business--the public ought to be in on it.”

Both Boland and Hayden said they believe that their bills stand better chances this year--rather than in previous years--because of the new political landscape in Sacramento. With the arrival of 28 new Assembly members and Speaker Willie Brown’s power diminishing, the lawmakers said the breakup legislation could be approved.

Boland said her office telephones were ringing continuously Thursday with supporters of the legislation. “People are really excited about the possibility of this happening,” she said.