School Breakup Study Assailed

Leaders of the movement to split the San Fernando Valley from the nation’s second-largest school district said Monday they strongly object to a consultant’s conclusions that two independent Valley districts would promote racial segregation and lack adequate funding.

Members of the Valley citizens group Finally Restoring Excellence in Education, or FREE, criticized the findings at a news conference following a closed-door meeting with officials from the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization, which will issue its recommendation on whether to put the breakaway bid to voters when it meets Wednesday.

“The reason for the meeting today was to prevail upon them to change their findings,” said former Assemblywoman Paula Boland, who said FREE members spent the weekend studying the two-volume report. “They have come to conclusions that are based on improper assumptions.”

The pro-breakup group took exception to the report’s conclusion that splitting up the Los Angeles Unified School District would decrease the percentage of white students in remaining LAUSD schools from 11% to 6% of the total student population.

Although the white student population is already decreasing in the district, a Valley split would accelerate the process and hurt LAUSD’s ability to maintain its current desegregation program, the report said.

Calling a 5% drop in the white student population “minuscule,” Boland said, “Why this has become an issue . . . is something we cannot comprehend.”

Under the plan, students from outside the breakup areas who currently attend a Valley school would continue to do so, Boland said, preserving existing desegregation programs.

Harold Gutenberg, a lawyer for the breakup group, disagreed with the report’s findings that the new Valley districts would lack sufficient funding to cover their operating expenses and to maintain required reserves following formation.

Both the consulting firm that prepared the report, Caldwell Flores Winters, as well as members of the county panel refused to comment.

Boland said FREE members wanted to go on record with their objections before the committee’s 11 members announce their recommendation Wednesday at the county education office headquarters in Downey.

Following the hearing, the committee’s recommendation will be forwarded to the California Board of Education, which ultimately will decide whether to call an election.

The state, which has no timeline, has not yet determined who would vote in the election--all district voters or just those in the areas proposed for independence.