LAUSD BREAKUP PUSHED AT VALLEY MEETING DUELING VISIONS DETAILED AT PUBLIC GATHERING ON SCHOOL DISTRICT REFORM.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer

At the first public meeting in the San Fernando Valley to discuss the mayor's plan to reform Los Angeles Unified, Assemblyman Keith Richman and state Sen. George Runner on Tuesday pushed their alternative agenda: breaking up the nation's second-largest school district.

Richman and Runner insisted that their plan to break up the district should go to voters within five years if Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 1381, is approved.

The breakup plan proposed by Richman, R-Granada Hills, and Runner, R-Lancaster, failed to pass in either the state Assembly or Senate.

Richman revealed Tuesday that hours before Villaraigosa negotiated his backroom deal with the powerful teachers union to reform the district, the mayor had reached across the aisle during lunch when they pitched the idea of backing mayoral control if voters had the chance in five years to OK mayoral control or opt to break up the 727,000-student district.

``We felt it was a reasonable compromise with the mayor and they thought it was an interesting idea, but the mayor negotiated with the teachers unions,'' Richman told about 150 people at Granada Hills Charter High School.

``From my perspective, there's a great deal of ambiguity and lack of focus on who's in charge in the mayor's proposal.''

Echoing Richman, Runner said, ``It should go to a vote. I believe the solution is in the hands of parents. I believe they should have a say.''

Former Mayor Richard Riordan -- who spoke on behalf of Villaraigosa, who did not attend the meeting -- said he agreed that breaking up into districts of 50,000 students or less is a ``great answer'' and one that doesn't contradict what the mayor wants to do.

But given the options available now, the mayor's plan is the only one that provides accountability and transparency, Riordan said.

``One person running a business does a better job than a committee running a business,'' he said.

AB 1381 would shift authority from the school board to the superintendent, give the mayor a significant role in the school district and give local school sites greater control over instruction, curriculum and budget.

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer once again used charts to show that in the last six years, the district's academic performance outpaced that of the average school in the state.

LAUSD parent Batya Rawlinson said she pulled her kids out of private school and enrolled them at an LAUSD school because she felt that would be the place they'd get the best education.

The Reseda resident said she opposed the bill because it was not the answer to the district's problems.

``There's no point in the mayor telling 750,000 kids that they're failing -- there are 1,780 kids at my childrens' school who are doing things right,'' she said about Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies. ``We don't really know what the plan is, parents are being excluded. We (SOCES) are exactly what they should be looking at.''

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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