Election a Milestone for Schools

If there were a Richter scale for local ballot measures, the question facing voters in the South Bay city of Carson would surely register at least a 9:

Should they leave the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District and create a system of their own?

The answer, to come Nov. 6, will reverberate well beyond the boundaries of the melting pot city of 89,730.

Carson’s Measure D is the only major one of the various “leave Los Angeles” drives to have made it onto the ballot in more than half a century. So its fate is widely viewed as a test of public sentiment not only about the beleaguered Los Angeles school district but also about the nation’s second-largest city itself, beset by secessionists from the San Fernando Valley to the harbor area.

“Carson voters will get to have their election, and that is absolutely wonderful news; it’s all any of us want, a chance to say yes or no,” said Stephanie Carter, one of the leaders of a drive to carve out two independent San Fernando Valley school districts from L.A. Unified.

In Carson, proponents say the 722,000-student L.A. Unified has been unable to substantially improve academic performance, provide sufficient textbooks, staunch the flow of dropouts or respond to parents’ concerns.

“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn the situation around, to control our own schools and our own money,” said Carolyn L. Harris, leader of the secession drive, who has had children and grandchildren in local schools. She believes that Carson students’ generally poor test scores and other conditions would improve dramatically under a smaller, locally run district and is seeking a seat on what would be the new school board.

Opponents, however, say breaking away would prompt experienced teachers to leave Carson in droves and would trigger overcrowding.

Anti-secessionists view a separate Carson district as an ominous precedent and, having lost a court battle last month to keep it off the ballot, are pushing hard for its defeat. The union for the district’s instructors, United Teachers-Los Angeles, has financed virtually all of the “no” campaign to date.

Leading the opposition is Doris J. Wilson, another longtime Carson resident with grandchildren on local campuses, who works in L.A. Unified’s comprehensive mental health services program.

“I don’t see a need to disrupt the education of our children,” she said, calling the new district an “experiment” likely to go awry for its projected 21,500 students. Wilson and other opponents of Measure D say the Los Angeles district is beginning to turn itself around.

By state law, teachers and administrators would have the choice of remaining with L.A. Unified or joining the new district. Most would leave Carson, making an existing teacher shortage even worse, secession opponents say.

They also stress expected overcrowding at Carson High School if about 1,100 local students attending Banning High in Wilmington, magnet programs and other Los Angeles campuses are funneled into Carson’s only comprehensive high school.

Many issues would not be resolved until after the election, including whether Carson students could continue to attend magnet programs outside their city. Given the waiting lists at many specialized, or magnet, campuses, however, it seems unlikely they could. Carson independence proponents concede this but counter that the new district could create schools that match or exceed the magnets.

Opponents also say local taxes would have to be raised. But secessionists vehemently dispute that. They cite a detailed, county-commissioned feasibility study stating that the new district would have adequate finances to cover its obligations--including honoring current employee contracts--for at least two years, the period studied.

Most Breakaway Attempts Fail

Although school district formations and reorganizations are not uncommon throughout California, most Los Angeles school secession drives in modern history have failed to make it through the lengthy, arduous process of reaching voters.

That process includes gathering voter signatures and undergoing intense scrutiny for financial viability and other issues by both county and state education officials. State law also requires additional terms for communities to leave the Los Angeles district. If voters give a thumbs up next month, Carson will be the first to carve a whole new district from the Los Angeles system since Torrance did in 1948.

Carson, a middle- and working-class community of tidy housing tracts, refineries and other business and industry, incorporated in 1968, well after current school district boundaries were drawn.

Its most visible symbol is the Goodyear blimp--anchored just off the San Diego Freeway, which slices diagonally through town. Including many families who have lived in town for two and three generations, Carson’s population is 36% Latino, 26% black, 23% Asian or Pacific Islander (including sizable numbers of Samoan Americans and Filipino Americans), 12% white and 3% American Indian or Alaska Native.

Most of the city lies within L.A. Unified boundaries, but a small part is in the adjacent Compton Unified School District.

The ballot proposition calls for a new district, sliced from both the Los Angeles and Compton systems, that would follow Carson city boundaries (except for Ralph Bunche Elementary School in northeast Carson, which would remain in the Compton district).

If a simple majority of voters approves, the new district will take ownership of 17 campuses (12 elementary schools, three middle schools, a comprehensive high school and a continuation high school) July 1 and serve nearly 21,500 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

County education officials would help guide an equitable division of other resources and property, such as school buses, and of debts and proceeds from Proposition BB, the $2.4-billion school repair and construction bond measure authorized in 1997.

On the same Nov. 6 ballot, voters will be asked to pick a five-member school board. The contest has drawn a field of 18 candidates, including three organizers who have worked for eight years to get the measure on the ballot. Although 13 of the candidates, not surprisingly, favor the new district, the positions of the other five range from neutrality to vehement opposition. If a new district is approved, candidates who oppose it say, they are best suited to ensure that things go as well as possible.

Many Leaders Remain Neutral

Many of the city’s civic and business leaders have remained carefully neutral, a testament to the high political charge the measure packs.

Mayor Daryl W. Sweeney is opposed, in part because he says the movement is being taken over by political opportunists. The City Council recently voted 3 to 2 to rescind a 1999 resolution supporting a new district.

Measure D has generated heartfelt debate on campuses and at numerous community forums.

At the Caroldale Avenue Learning Center, teachers, administrators and custodial, clerical and cafeteria workers, plus many parents, are united in opposition to Measure D.

“This would destroy our school, because so many of the people who have been here so long would leave, and we would lose our continuity and our experienced staff, people who really love and care about this school,” said third-grade teacher Vickie Sakado. Among her colleagues are some of the same teachers she had when she attended Caroldale. Her older son is in second grade there.

Carson district proponents, however, say they would urge the new board to make keeping the teachers a top priority, including matching, and possibly even surpassing, L.A. Unified’s pay and benefits.

The county feasibility study found that the new district, which would begin with an annual budget of about $110 million, could probably afford to meet a state requirement to keep the same retirement benefits for vested L.A. Unified teachers. In addition, supporters note, most funding for public schools comes from the state, and local bond measures require voter approval.

“These are scare tactics and distortions,” said Don Davis, one of the organizers of the new district proposal and a candidate for its board, about the opposition’s charges. Overcrowding at the high school, for example, could be handled by adding portable classrooms, converting a middle school to a high school or putting ninth-graders back at the middle-school level, Davis said.

“The real issue is local control,” he continued. “We look at the smaller districts in Los Angeles County, and it is clear that the vast majority of them are doing a much better job with their students than L.A. Unified, and we know we can too.”

Details Expected Before Election Day

The Yes on Carson Schools Committee is far behind its opponents in campaign spending and organization. By Sept. 22, the end of the most recent reporting period, it had raised just $2,400, most of it from the organizers themselves. They have yet to open a campaign headquarters and are relying largely on forums to reach voters.

Criticized for not having a detailed plan for the new district, pro-Measure D school board candidates say they will jointly unveil recommendations before election day.

“We’re not politicians, but I still think we will prevail,” said secession leader Harris, who recently called a news conference to introduce pro-Carson district candidates--then asked a reporter how to conduct it.

The Carson for Kids, No on Measure D, group had raised $79,750, all but $150 of it from the teachers union, documents filed with county election officials show. From their headquarters in a strip mall in the heart of town, opponents are organizing precinct walks and telephone calls to voters.

A poll commissioned by opponents in late August tapped early views. The telephone survey of 500 likely voters--after reportedly hearing a brief description of the pros and cons--found sentiment running 40% for forming a new district, 51% against and 9% undecided. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

“It’s winnable, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work,” campaign consultant Ed Velasquez told teachers volunteering to fight the secession.

Some parents feel strongly that leaving L.A. Unified would be a mistake, noting that the district has shown some improvements lately, including raising test scores at some campuses and reorganizing the district into smaller administrative sections.

“I do not want to see what we’ve worked so hard to build destroyed by a breakaway,” said Virginia Nicholson, who attended Caroldale and has four grandchildren there.

But Fa’alagilagi Meni-Siliga, whose son, Javan, 7, attends her former elementary school, Del Amo, is just as adamant that “we can’t stick with the status quo.”

“Basically, L.A. Unified has done nothing for us. We don’t have enough textbooks, and it takes far too long for the district to respond to problems,” she said.

Other parents remain on the fence.

“We all know L.A. Unified has their problems, and this seems like a good idea,” said Alma Castillo after attending a forum while her youngest child, Michelle, 11, did homework at the back of the room.

“The problem is, at least with L.A. Unified, we know what we have,” mused Castillo. “Would our own district be better, or would it be worse? What would we really be getting?

“I’m still thinking about it.”