Local News in Brief : Ruling on School Split Expected

The state Board of Education is expected to decide March 7 whether a parents group on the east side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula has adequate grounds for breaking away from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District and forming its own school system.

If the board approves the secession petition submitted by the East Peninsula Education Council, it will call an election on the issue, probably late this year. It will also determine whether the vote will be districtwide or limited to voters in the proposed new school district, generally bounded on the west by Crenshaw Boulevard.

If the board rejects the petition, the secession effort will fail and the existing school district will remain intact. Early last year, the petition was rejected at the county level by the Committee on School District Organization.

The parents group launched the secession drive in November, 1987, after district trustees voted to close Miraleste High School because of declining enrollment. A judge acting at the request of Miraleste parents blocked the closure for at least a year, pending the outcome of legal maneuvers.