School Board Districting Feud Comes to Council

Contentious debate continued Thursday when a map that proposes new district boundaries for the Los Angeles Board of Education was presented to the City Council for further review.

Critics contend that the map disenfranchises the San Fernando Valley and was chosen because it protects selected incumbent board members.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Redistricting must implement new boundaries by July 1. Boundaries are redrawn every 10 years to reflect demographic shifts.

A commission in charge of the task spent weeks debating two map proposals before recommending one two weeks ago.

Known as the Los Angeles Redistricting Commission for the Los Angeles Unified School District, the panel voted 9 to 6 for a map that would place the southwest Valley in a district based in West L.A.

It also would move school board President Caprice Young from a district based in Hollywood and Koreatown into a West Valley district that could give her a better chance at reelection because of its majority of white registered voters.

The opposing map would have kept the southwest Valley in a Valley district, but moved the Cahuenga Pass area to a district that included West L.A.

Each board member represents 635,000 residents. The Valley, with a population of 1.44 million, requires representation by the equivalent of 2.2 board members, meaning that one member will represent part of the Valley as well as neighborhoods elsewhere.

Board member Julie Korenstein, who backed the defeated map, told the council committee that the favored proposal “will help fuel the fires of the San Fernando Valley secession movement.”

She said the Cahuenga Pass identifies more with West L.A. than the southwest Valley because of access to freeways. Supporters of the defeated map had said it is quicker to drive from West L.A. to North Hollywood than to drive to Woodland Hills.

“The committee’s job is to be a referee in an excruciatingly difficult situation,” said Councilman Jack Weiss, who chairs the council panel. “I think the task of drawing new boundaries for the LAUSD is even more excruciating than it is for the City Council.”

On the commission for the LAUSD, members Diana Dixon-Davis and Irma Hopkins voted for the defeated map and wrote a minority report that said the panel acted unfairly and ignored overwhelming public support for that option.

Commissioners Michael Keeley, George Cole and Eric Alderete, who presented the final report to the council committee Thursday, had a chance to reflect on the redrawing process.

They said there were not enough public comments at their community meetings and that most of the testimony was not provided by individual residents but by organized labor groups such as United Teachers-Los Angeles.

“The frustrating part was trying to really connect with parents and community members,” Cole said.

Weiss said his impression from the committee’s first meeting was that “LAUSD is extremely out of touch, and something is seriously wrong with the current system to connect parents to representatives.”

The committee will meet again Thursday at City Hall.