RESIDENTS WANT TO BREAK AWAY; NEIGHBORHOOD TRIES TO LEAVE GLENDALE UNIFIED DISTRICT.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

These days, it seems just about everybody wants to secede from something, and a group of La Canada Flintridge residents is no exception.

Their six-year battle to break away from the Glendale Unified School District is coming to a head. Any day now, a judge is expected to rule whether to clear the way for the split.

But these residents, who live in a 385-acre area of La Canada Flintridge known as Sagebrush, face at least two towering obstacles.

Glendale Unified staunchly opposes the breakaway and La Canada Unified, the district these families want to join, has no classrooms for their children.

``There is nothing left for us to do right now except to wait for the ruling,'' said Deborah Orlik, the La Canada Flintridge-based attorney representing the Sagebrush families. ``We'll deal with the other issues once we get the ruling.''

Today, children living in the kidney-bean-shaped Sagebrush area attend Glendale schools, even though their peers in the rest of town go to La Canada schools.

That's because, when the city of La Canada Flintridge was incorporated in 1976, families chose at the time to remain a part of Glendale Unified.

Changing sentiment

But the sentiment has changed. Since 1991, residents have fought Glendale school officials for the opportunity to become part of their home city district, which is less than one-seventh the size of Glendale Unified.

The issue, these families argue, is one of community identity. They say they don't feel they are a part of La Canada Flintridge because their children don't go to school there. Nor do they feel they are a part of Glendale, because they don't live in that city.

``I just think that part of the whole point of going to public school is to go to school in your home town,'' said Gail Merchant, whose daughter is in the first grade at Mountain Avenue Elementary, a Glendale school. ``It doesn't happen here. It becomes a very divided community.''

But Glendale district officials have stood firm against any split, which would involve transferring the Sagebrush territory from one district to another.

The breakup, they say, would harm students by putting at risk funding for school programs and changing the student population's ethnic make-up.

``We believe there has been no compelling educational reason identified to justify the transfer of territory,'' Glendale Superintendent James Brown said.

``We also believe that communities are created along all sorts of different lines that don't just follow city or school district boundaries.''

Boundaries overlap 

A majority of school districts in Los Angeles County have boundaries that overlap the limits of at least two cities, district officials say.

The difference between La Canada and Glendale schools serving the Sagebrush area, located in the foothills above Glendale, is nothing to alarm educators.

Sagebrush residents for the most part live within short commutes to schools in each district. And Sagebrush-area schools in each district have racked up kudos for their fine academic programs.

La Canada schools, however, have slightly higher test scores. La Canada High students scored on average 570 in verbal and 620 in math on the most recent SAT exam. Next door in the Glendale district, La Crescenta Valley High students scored 537 in verbal and 576 in math.

The debate raises the question of whether parents should be allowed to pull their children out of the 30,000-student Glendale district and move to the 4,000-student La Canada district.

``We need someone wiser than Solomon to figure this all out,'' said Glendale school board member Chuck Sambar, who lives in La Canada Flintridge, but has not publicly supported the breakaway. ``It has been very difficult for me.''

Tax base concern

Glendale Unified is edgy about losing a chunk of its tax base now that voters - including Sagebrush residents - approved a $186-million bond to upgrade school facilities.

Glendale could also lose state revenue from the allotment districts receive based on the number of students they teach.

Sagebrush parents charge money is the only issue holding up the transfer.

``The students are being held hostage for the money,'' said Carol Mollett, a Sagebrush resident.

Glendale officials deny that money is the only reason for the opposition. They have other concerns, such as complying with state mandates to encourage the preservation of ethnically diverse districts.

Officials say they fear that the transfer could result in a large group of white students leaving Glendale Unified for a less ethnically diverse district.

But Sagebrush families counter that the Sagebrush-area schools in each district have similar ethnic populations. A special county report prepared when Sagebrush parents first petitioned for the breakaway in 1991 found the transfer would have no significant impact on ethnic diversity in either district.

The final answer will come from court. Following an Oct. 6 hearing on the breakaway, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George Schiavelli has until early January to make a ruling.

The issue before the judge is whether the State Board of Education overstepped its bounds when it backed a move by Glendale Unified that blocked a vote on the split.

The County Committee on School District Organization in 1992 approved the breakaway and called for an election. But Glendale quickly appealed the committee's decision to the state board, which in 1993 sided with the district, halting the transfer movement.

Whatever the legal outcome, Sagebrush parents will have to face the fact that La Canada Unified schools are already full.

``We don't have the space (for the Sagebrush children) at this time,'' said C.T. Holman, La Canada Unified's superintendent, who hasn't taken a position on the issue.

According to Unite La Canada Flintridge, the resident's group pushing for the breakaway, there are at least 360 school-age children in the Sagebrush area.

At least 103 attend private schools or have permission to attend La Canada schools through a special inter-district transfer granted on a case-by case basis.

That leaves more than 250 Sagebrush students needing classroom space if the breakaway were to occur.

CAPTION(S):

2 maps

MAP: (1) Another breakaway

(2) Sagebrush area