The Peninsula

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District board canceled plans to lay off about 40 teachers in June after 35 people--most of them longtime teachers at the top of the pay scale--agreed to resign or retire in June. Under a district incentive program designed to cut costs, each teacher who leaves will receive $15,000. The district, which has a $1.9 million deficit, will save $804,000 in teacher salaries, according to spokeswoman Nancy Mahr.

The district canceled layoff hearings for 134 teachers who had been sent notices that they might be laid off. Mahr said that before the decision of the 35 to voluntarily leave, the district had been faced with trimming $800,000 in teacher salaries through layoffs.

In other action this week, the board listened to more protests about plans to change intermediate school attendance boundaries because of declining enrollment. A final decision will be made May 6. The proposal has drawn fire from parents opposed to the scheduled closure of Margate Intermediate School in Palos Verdes Estates in June, and from partisans of Dapplegray Intermediate School, who want enrollment there increased to guard the school against future closure. Since 1973, the district has lost 40% of its student population.

A draft environmental impact report on relocation of the continuation high school also will go to the board on May 6. Margate and La Cresta, a closed elementary school in Rolling Hills, are possible sites for the school, and residents near both have come out in opposition, saying they do not want to live near a school for “dropouts.” They also have cited concerns over traffic, parking and noise. The continuation school is now located at Rolling Hills High School.