ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINION REMOVES OBSTACLE TO LAUSD BREAKUP.Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau Proponents of dismantling the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. won a major victory Wednesday when the Attorney General's Office cleared away a key obstacle blocking the start of a breakup petition drive. Leaders of the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. school break-up effort, FREE (Finally Restoring Excellence in Education), who three times have had their petitions rejected by county officials, said they would submit their request again today along with a copy of the opinion. They hope to get breakup on the ballot by 2000. ``It's dynamite. The process for reform is going to start right now,'' said former Assemblywoman Paula Boland, R-Granada Hills. ``We're going to liberate the kids in the San Fernando Valley.'' The opinion, issued by state Attorney General Dan Lungren Daniel Edward (Dan) Lungren (born September 22, 1946), is a Republican of the United States House of Representatives representing California's 3rd congressional district (see map), located in the suburbs of Sacramento where he has served since 2005. , states that breakup petitioners do not need to file detailed legal descriptions of the two new districts they want to create in the Valley. Providing the formal boundary maps as required by the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County Office of Education would have cost proponents at least $100,000 - a price tag that had threatened to stop the movement in its tracks. By sparing proponents that expense, Lungren's ruling could jump-start efforts to put a breakup proposal on the ballot. Organizers of the effort said they hope to get permission today to begin gathering signatures. County officials, who had required similar maps and legal descriptions for all such petitions over at least the past decade, said they had not yet seen or studied the opinion. ``Apparently you are getting the information before we are,'' said Kenneth Shelton, a county assistant superintendent Assistant Superintendent, or Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), was a rank used by police forces in the British Empire. It was usually the lowest rank that could be held by a European officer, most of whom joined the police at this rank. . ``We have not yet seen it.'' Shelton said officials would study the opinion and move quickly to change their procedures if necessary. Officials wanted the Attorney General's ruling to settle the legal question before any petitions were approved. ``We want this to move forward,'' he said. ``It's unfair to all the parties involved to have a process that is held in limbo.'' But he wasn't sure whether officials would be prepared to immediately authorize the group to collect signatures. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if that's realistic,'' Shelton said. Scott Wilk, executive director of FREE and an aide to Boland's successor, Assemblyman as·sem·bly·man n. A man who is a member of a legislative assembly. assemblyman Noun pl -men a member of a legislative assembly Noun 1. Tom McClintock Thomas Miller "Tom" McClintock (born July 10, 1956 in White Plains, New York) is a California State Senator. He ran for Governor of California in the 2003 California recall election of Gray Davis and finished third out of 135 candidates with 13.5% of the overall vote. , R-Granada Hills, called for officials to allow the group to begin collecting signatures immediately. ``The L.A. County Office of Education has run out of excuses,'' said Wilk. ``We have leaped over all the hurdles and we've reached the finish line. We want them to hand us our petition.'' Wilk said county officials have held to their policy despite a series of legal opinions from other attorneys that the maps were not required. The stalemate prompted McClintock to seek a ruling by the state Attorney General's Office, which, barring court challenges, carries the force of law. The legal analysis, prepared by Deputy Attorney General Anthony Summers Anthony Bruce Summers was born on 3 December 1942. After completing his college education in English at Oxford University he worked as a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). , clearly sides with breakup proponents. ``While a petition to reorganize a school district must, prior to public hearings or an election, reasonably identify the territory to be reorganized, we believe this need not be accomplished by way of a legal description,'' the opinion states. ``Indeed, a reference to streets or prominent geographic features may provide more meaningful notice to voters than a metes and bounds The boundary lines of land, with their terminal points and angles. A way of describing land by listing the compass directions and distances of the boundaries. It is often used in connection with the Government Survey System. legal description.'' The opinion also states that the county Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. - not the petitioners - is responsible for the costs of preparing and filing an official map after a reorganization has been approved by voters. The map dispute was just the latest in a series of bureaucratic bu·reau·crat n. 1. An official of a bureaucracy. 2. An official who is rigidly devoted to the details of administrative procedure. bu hurdles breakup proponents have faced. Initially, Boland pushed through legislation lowering the number of petition signatures required. And earlier this year, proponents beat back a proposal for the state Board of Education to adopt complex new regulations to govern any breakup of the district. But new hurdles await breakup proponents even if their petition goes forward and they collect the roughly 20,000 signatures required by state law. Both the county and state boards state boards Examinations administered by a US state board of medical examiners to license a physician in a particular state; these examinations play an ever-decreasing role in state medical licensure, as these bodies now rely on standardized national examinations of education would have to hold hearings on any district breakup. The state board would have to approve the petition before the proposal would be placed on the ballot, which proponents expect won't occur until 1999 or 2000. Proponents said the latest wrangling has set their work back several months. ``We have lost six months of time and finances,'' said Stephanie Carter, a parent and co-chairwoman of FREE. ``We're not happy about that.'' Nor were proponents pleased that county officials Wednesday turned back the group's latest petition, filed last month, rather than waiting for the attorney general's opinion. Carter said she believed county officials had agreed to wait for Lungren's ruling before acting on the petition request. ``I'm disappointed,'' she said. ``In the past, I've personally given them the benefit of the doubt. But as of this very minute, I'm questioning their credibility.'' |
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