Hearing on L.A. Unified Split Delayed

The state Department of Education has postponed until September a public hearing on whether the San Fernando Valley’s public schools should secede from the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials said Monday.

The hearing was delayed at the request of the union that represents the district’s 43,000 teachers, counselors, psychologists and nurses. The hearing will be held during the state board’s Sept. 5 meeting in Sacramento instead of June 7.

United Teachers-Los Angeles, which opposes the creation of two new school districts in the Valley and several other proposals to break up Los Angeles Unified, needs more time to prepare its arguments, UTLA Vice President John Perez said.

“We have a few other things on our plate right now that are taking up our time,” Perez said, citing Los Angeles’ mayoral and school board elections and upcoming contract negotiations.

The union also is busy waging a campaign against a plan to create a separate school district in Carson. That breakup plan is scheduled for a public vote in November.

The union contends that “the problems faced by educators in Los Angeles aren’t going away if you break up the district,” Perez said.

Supporters of the proposed Valley districts say the new school systems would be more responsive to students and parents than Los Angeles Unified, which has 711,000 students and is the nation’s second-largest school district behind New York City’s.

Stephanie Carter, a leader of the group backing the Valley proposal, said she did not mind the delay. The hearing had landed on the state board’s June agenda after Carter’s group, Finally Restoring Excellence in Education, had requested a postponement from May because one of FREE’s chief petitioners could not attend.