Unity Is Stressed at LAUSD Breakup Meeting

A San Fernando Valley group that had spearheaded initial efforts to dismantle the Los Angeles Unified School District met Saturday for the first time in months to jump-start its flagging campaign, stressing unity among parents citywide.

During the two-hour gathering, more than 30 parents, retired teachers and other residents set up committees and aired ideas on how to write a proposal for creating separate Valley school districts.

They also listened to the advice of a South Los Angeles parent who helped draft the first formal proposal to legally secede from the nation’s second-largest school system, and who urged the Valley residents not to let breakup opponents divide parents.

“We wanted to do something because we were hearing rumors, and I was getting phone calls from people asking what was going on, but no one knew anything,” said breakup activist Stephanie Carter, one of the meeting’s organizers.

Carter said efforts by the Valley group--which had been at the center of the breakup movement during the summer--had stalled in recent months because the group was waiting to see what kind of financial and legislative support politicians might offer them. Meanwhile, efforts by other organizations in the city beat the Valley group to the starting line.

Just last week, a South Los Angeles group proposed creating the Inner-City Unified School District, which would include about 125,000 students and 123 schools. The proposal was the first to be submitted under new state legislation, and the first legal step in a process that will take up to three years.

Sylvester Hinton, one of the leaders of the Inner-City district proposal, advised the Valley group Saturday on organizing its campaign and directing its proposal. Hinton stressed that the two groups should work together to push for a separation from LAUSD.

“They’re going to try to separate us,” Hinton said of breakup opponents. “We’re all fighting for the same thing and need to work together.”

Saturday’s meeting focused on boundaries for any new districts, retirement options for teachers, the fiscal and legal impacts of severing ties with LAUSD, and whether the Valley should push for several separate districts or one district that would include all Valley schools and about 184,000 students.

“We don’t want to create another LAUSD. Districts don’t have to be as big,” argued Diana Dixon-Davis, a breakup activist who pointed to the Glendale and Burbank school districts as examples of smaller, successful districts.

Gene Pomerantz, a parent, said having several districts within the Valley might pit one group against another when the goal was for the Valley to work together. “I think if there was a single San Fernando Valley school district it would be infinitely better than being part of LAUSD,” he said.

Parent Tony Alcala of Sun Valley said he wanted to be assured that if a breakup happens, the East Valley still would not be faced with the growing problem of having students bused out of the area because of older, overcrowded schools.

“We need to get our act together like people did in the inner city and get the ball rolling on this thing,” Alcala said. “The goal is getting more local control and to stop getting caught up with this bureaucracy, so we need to start moving toward that goal.”

The group met at the Los Angeles Times’ Valley Edition in Chatsworth. Times officials said no inference should be drawn from the fact that the meeting was held there. Times meeting facilities are occasionally used, at no cost, by various agencies and community groups.