BREAKUP'S BIG STEP; PETITIONS FOR CREATING VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICTS CERTIFIED; HEARINGS NEXT STEP IN SCHOOL BREAK-UP.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Entering unchartered educational territory, a San Fernando Valley group's petition drive to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District won certification Monday, setting the stage to start public hearings.

The two-year petition drive by Finally Restoring Excellence in Education ended with the Los Angeles County Office of Education's verification of 20,962 Valley signatures, catapulting the effort to create separate North Valley and South Valley school districts into a new, and likely contentious, stage.

``It's marvelous,'' said former state Assemblywoman Paula Boland, co- chairwoman of FREE, whose legislation made school breakup and city secession movements possible. ``This is the first step of an important journey.''

Bert Boeckmann, a prominent Valley businessman, civic leader and FREE co-chairman, said the success of the petition drive should prove skeptics wrong about breaking up the LAUSD.

``A lot of people doubted,'' Boeckmann said. ``But no one ever turned me down on a signature.

``Ultimately this thing is going to happen, whether it's with us or someone else. It's more evident all the time as to why. The LAUSD is archaic.''

On Wednesday, a county educational committee is expected to consider the petition drive and schedule public hearings - the first step in a process that ultimately could bring the issue to the state Board of Education, empowered to approve or reject the breakup application.

FREE officials hope to create two racially and ethnically diverse districts of about 100,000 students each. The anticipated boundary line runs east-west along Saticoy Street and Roscoe Boulevard.

With roots that date back to the 1960s, the breakup movement has been fed of late by growing anger over low student test scores, bureaucratic bungling of the Belmont Learning Center and other construction projects, and impatience with repeated promises to reform the 710,000-student LAUSD.

``How many times do we have to hear, reforms are coming, reforms are coming, reforms are coming?'' Boland said. ``How long do they think people are going to listen to that?''

Los Angeles school board President Genethia Hayes said the breakup plan is premature and ill-advised.

``Why can't people understand this is a radically different school board that has strong feelings about local control?'' said Hayes, who presides over a newly constituted board.

Incoming interim Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines said he expects to have a plan for eight to 12 semiautonomous, mini-districts in place by July, and voters could then judge how they perform.

The petition will be discussed Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization, a group of former and current local school board members, which will then schedule a public hearing.

The committee's recommendation then goes to the California Department of Education, which already is bracing for it. The state Board of Education has the final authority whether to put the breakup plan before voters.

Typically, the department's limited staff evaluates reorganization proposals - most of which are consolidations, not breakups - for racial, ethnic, financial and educational impacts, a process that can take several months.

Proposals must also meet stringent legal tests and, in the case of the LAUSD, political battles and possible legal challenges.

``We'll have to play this one by ear, because it's by far the biggest one we'll receive in decades, I'm sure,'' said Dan Reibson, specialist in school district reorganization for the department.

The state board flatly rejected, without comment, last year's effort by Lomita to break away from the LAUSD, Reibson said.

The success of FREE's pioneering signature drive encouraged LAUSD break-up proponents throughout the city who hope to follow in its footsteps with petitions to take apart the entire district.

``This is very beneficial,'' said Richard Close, chairman of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, a member of the districtwide The Coalition to Break Away. ``All of this puts more pressure on the Legislature to do something about LAUSD.''

Close equated the synergy of breakup to the tax revolt of the 1970s. He said LAUSD break-up activism has particular significance for the San Fernando Valley, where there is sentiment for other kinds of political autonomy.

``There is a conceptual belief in the Valley that residents should have their own government, school district and transportation district. Now this issue has taken the next step forward.''

The petition's success immediately drew opposition, especially from the United Teachers Los Angeles and its leaders, who promised a full-out assault, insisting teacher raises and new schools are more important.

UTLA President Day Higuchi said the union would mobilize 10,000 teachers in the Valley alone and had budgeted up to $1 million to fight break up of the district.

``It's not really true that breaking up districts make for better districts,'' he said. ``What happens is that out of 20 school districts, you end up with 15 Comptons.''

Los Angeles board members who have little direct input into whether breakup goes forward have not generally said they were opposed to FREE's proposal, putting confidence instead in their own reform agenda.

Board member Julie Korenstein, who represents most of the Valley, said she probably wouldn't support two Valley districts, saying it would create dual bureaucracies and interfere with feeder patterns to middle and high schools.

``I've always supported one united San Fernando Valley district,'' she said.

Boeckmann said the number of districts is not the point - rather it's moving education in Los Angeles forward.

``Ideally, it should be eight districts,'' Boeckmann said. ``But, realistically, we went for two. We're interested in schools where parents can be involved. If they are not, you lose a tremendous amount of control and oversight.''

Board member Caprice Young said if the district can't fix its problems within the next couple of years, ``I'd be a breakup proponent.''

Boland said FREE believes the district has already had enough chances.

``The district is way too big, and it can't function, it doesn't function. It hasn't functioned for 20 years,'' she said.