Panel to Assess L.A. Unified Secession Plan

A Los Angeles County education committee formally received petitions Wednesday from a group intent on breaking up the 710,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District by carving out two independent school systems in the San Fernando Valley.

The 11 elected members of the county’s Committee on School District Reorganization also decided Wednesday to hold at least two public hearings on the issue in February. Dates have not been set.

The committee will assess the secession request and eventually forward a recommendation to the State Board of Education, said Margo Minecki, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Office of Education. The state board will decide whether or not to call an election.

Under state law, the county committee must assess whether the proposed districts will cause any substantial increase in public costs. And also under state law, a district breakup cannot be approved if it promotes racial or ethnic discrimination or segregation.

The Valley proposals conform to state requirements, said Stephanie Carter, co-chairwoman of Finally Restoring Excellence in Education. Some group members said they may need to revise boundaries of the proposed districts, however, because the population of the East Valley is growing so rapidly.

The proposed districts would each have about 100,000 students, placing them among the five largest systems in the state, according to the state Department of Education.

The Valley secession plan is among about a half-dozen efforts to carve up the Los Angeles school district, the nation’s second largest. No community has left Los Angeles Unified since Torrance in 1948.

The Valley group collected 20,962 signatures calling for the creation of two school districts, with a boundary roughly along Roscoe Boulevard that would divide the Valley into northern and southern halves.