Hearings Set on L.A. Unified Breakup

Beginning Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization will hold two public meetings in the San Fernando Valley on breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District and forming two independent systems here.

The meetings will help the 11-member committee, an independent and elected body, make a recommendation to the State Board of Education on whether to establish two 100,000-student school systems in the Valley.

Ultimately, the state board would decide whether to call an election.

Ninety minutes will be allotted for public presentations, with 45 minutes each for proponents and opponents.

The breakup proposal, submitted to the education committee last month by Finally Restoring Excellence in Education, or FREE, calls for two 100,000-student school districts with a boundary roughly along Roscoe Boulevard.

The Valley would be divided into northern and southern halves.

To begin the process of breaking up L.A. Unified, which has 711,000 students, FREE was required by state law to collect validated signatures from 8% of the residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election.

A minimum of 20,808 signatures was needed. FREE collected 20,962.

The county verified the petitions to ensure those who signed were registered voters.

County officials emphasized the hearings are for information-gathering and not referendums on the number of people for or against the proposal.

Under state law, the committee is required to ensure the proposed districts will not cause any substantial increase in costs to the state nor promote racial or ethnic discrimination or segregation, among other factors.

Each speaker will be limited to five minutes or shorter. Speakers are also encouraged to arrive early to sign in.

Those who need interpreters should call (562) 940-1645 at least three days before the meetings.

The 7 p.m. hearings will be Wednesday at San Fernando High School, 11133 O’Melveny Ave., San Fernando, and Feb. 24 at Birmingham High School, 17000 Haynes St., Van Nuys.