CITY OFFICIALS BACK AUDIT OF LAUSD LEADERS HINT THEY MAY OK BREAKUP INSTEAD OF CONTROL BY VILLARAIGOSA.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer

SOUTH LOS ANGELES -- While Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa moves aggressively to take control of Los Angeles Unified, leaders of other cities resurrected the idea Wednesday of dismantling the nation's second-largest school district instead.

Leaders of 10 of the 27 cities that send students to LAUSD joined Villaraigosa at a news conference where they voiced support for an independent state audit of the district that could take up to $1 million and a year to complete.

But just because they support Villaraigosa's call for an audit, they said, doesn't mean they back his plan to control the district.

``It creates the dialogue between mayors of cities to discuss which is the best direction to take,'' said Carson Mayor Jim Dear. ``Because of what's taking place, it's more likely there will be breakaway efforts.''

Bill De Witt, the vice mayor of South Gate, said he is willing to consider dismantling the sprawling district, which is responsible for 727,000 students.

``That is something that might come out of this,'' De Witt said. ``We're in flux at this point.

``Obviously, we're not satisfied with the product of the schools. We have enough local people interested in making a change and, hopefully, we will be able to seize upon this momentum and do something for our kids.''

Villaraigosa said his efforts to reform the district would allow for a ``wide diversity of opinion'' among decision-makers.

He does not believe that competing efforts would jeopardize his own plan to reform LAUSD -- including a provision to have his office appoint a superintendent who would be responsible for most decisions now made by the elected school board.

``There are going to be a number of opinions for school reform,'' he said. ``This effort has to have the latitude and the flexibility to be open to many views about how to improve our schools.''

But Superintendent Roy Romer said neighboring cities -- particularly those in the southeast -- would only hurt themselves if they break away from the district before 2012, when a $19 billion construction program is slated for completion.

``They are the ones with the highest needs and that's where we built most of the schools,'' he said. ``It will be cutting their own throats to take off from this district before the program is done, so we ought to discuss this.''

A number of LAUSD breakup and reform efforts have stalled or failed in the past decade, including one that would have created two separate districts in the San Fernando Valley.

Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, and Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, introduced identical bills this year to splinter LAUSD into districts of no more than 50,000 students each, but neither measure made it past the committee level.

In his run last year for mayor, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg said his priority would be to carve up the school district -- a goal that also got the backing of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hertzberg said Wednesday he believes a breakup backed by a cluster of cities -- rather than the Valley, which is part of Los Angeles -- could succeed if they pursue a statewide ballot initiative.

``A ballot initiative would talk about the idea of setting four principles of education, which would include a limit on the size of the districts, classroom size and teacher-student ratios, so you can build a statewide coalition to do this,'' he said.

``This time, it has legs and there's going to continue to be efforts, whether from large cities or small, until there is change. The LAUSD spin machine has been working overtime lately, but it doesn't mask the fact that 50 percent of students aren't graduating from high school.''

School board member David Tokofsky was skeptical that any new effort would be successful.

``The people of the San Fernando Valley and the city of Los Angeles have, through four bonds, contributed significant money to build schools in these small cities,'' he said. ``I think the romanticism is producing the hope that we can have more governments created with more elected officials.

``I don't think the history of voters of L.A. County or California look very favorably upon the creation of more governments as a solution to the perceived problems.''

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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Carson Mayor Jim Dear, L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa watch L.A. Controller Laura Chick sign papers calling for an audit of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer