Petitions for L.A. Unified Breakup Validated

A San Fernando Valley group learned Monday that it has collected enough valid signatures to move forward with its goal of breaking up the 710,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District.

The group, Finally Restoring Excellence in Education--known as FREE--collected 20,962 signatures of residents advocating the creation of two new school districts in the Valley, according to the county office of education, which validated the signatures. A minimum of 20,808 valid signatures were needed to keep the secession movement alive.

“We’re in business,” said Paula Boland, a FREE co-chair and former state assemblywoman. “There’s no time to celebrate; we have to get busy.”

The FREE breakup plan calls for two 100,000-student school districts, with a boundary roughly along Roscoe Boulevard that would divide the Valley into northern and southern halves. Group members will discuss their plans Wednesday with the 11 elected members of the county’s Committee on School District Reorganization at the county education office in Downey.

To begin the breakup process, state law requires petitioners to collect signatures from 8% of the total number of residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election. Once the county verifies that petitioners are registered voters, it has 60 days to hold at least one public hearing.

After the hearings, the county committee will submit FREE’s proposal and a recommendation to the State Board of Education, which would decide whether to call an election.

No community has left Los Angeles Unified since Torrance in 1948. Lomita has tried to break off and form its own 2,000-student district but has failed twice, in part because the state board believed the new district would be too small to operate efficiently.

The proposed Valley districts would be among the five largest in the state, according to the California Department of Education. FREE members say the proposed districts would be large enough to wield clout in Sacramento but small enough to respond to the community.

“Breaking up the district is in the best interest of the children,” said Boland, who is credited with creating legislation needed to dismantle the nation’s second-largest school district. “[School officials] can’t reform the district. They keep tripping and falling on their faces.”

Valley activists have advocated splitting Los Angeles Unified for more than a decade. FREE was formed two years ago but experienced several setbacks, including losing its executive director and being overshadowed by the city secession drive.

FREE is among about half a dozen local organizations working to carve up Los Angeles Unified.

“It’s good for schools in the Valley and in the whole district because it starts the process,” said Richard Close, chairman of Valley VOTE, a city secession group that recently expanded its campaign to include the breakup of the school district. “It also puts pressure on Sacramento.”

Los Angeles school board member Caprice Young said that although she understands the frustration with city schools, she urged secessionists to work toward reform.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity right now,” Young said, referring to the school board’s new activism.

Last month, Ramon C. Cortines, who will become interim Los Angeles Unified superintendent Jan. 15, outlined a preliminary reorganization plan that would divide the district into eight to 12 semiautonomous mini-districts, each with its own superintendent. Currently, the district has three assistant superintendents overseeing 27 clusters of schools.

Young said the plan, which Cortines discussed with school administrators Monday, should give schools and parents more authority and accountability.

“If we’re unable to fix the problems, I’ll be lining up myself [with the breakup effort],” Young said.