Governor Vetoes Panel on Palos Verdes School Closures

A bill that would have given parents living on the east side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula more clout with local school officials over campus closures was vetoed this week by Gov. George Deukmejian.

The legislation, which was opposed by the Palos Verdes Unified School District, was sponsored by Rep. Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro). The measure was the outgrowth of a longstanding dispute between parents and the school board over a 1987 decision to close Miraleste High School on the east side because of declining enrollment.

The board’s decision was subsequently blocked by a lawsuit and remains open.

The bill, which would have applied only to the Palos Verdes school district, would have authorized the state’s superintendent of public instruction to appoint a five-member advisory committee to address the issue of school closures. It also mandated that the committee consist only of residents living in the Miraleste area. However, Felando said this week that provision was a technical error that he would have sought to amend had the governor signed the bill.

In vetoing the measure, Deukmejian said it would have improperly allowed the state to intervene in an area of “local governance.”

“The decision as to whether or not a citizens advisory committee is necessary to assist the local Board of Education is and should remain the responsibility” of the board, the governor said.

Prior to the veto, school district officials had made similar arguments. In a letter sent to the governor last month, school board President Jack Bagdasar said the measure would set a precedent “which undermines local government.”

Bagdasar also said that because only Miraleste residents would serve on the committee, the bill could foster friction on the peninsula “by placing one section of the community in review of all other sections in relation to school closure plans.”

Ted Gibbs, a member of the East Peninsula Education Council, a parents group working to keep Miraleste open, said the purpose of the bill was to give the parents more power to independently determine the financial, environmental and other impacts of closing Miraleste.

“It would have been a major disclosure mechanism,” Gibbs said of the bill.

Even if the measure had become law, Barry Hildebrand, president of the parents group, conceded that the measure would not assist east side parents “in practical terms” because the committee would have functioned strictly in an advisory capacity.

“Maybe Felando will come back and do something else,” Hildebrand said. “At least it got on the governor’s desk.”

As a result of a lawsuit filed by the parents group, the district was ordered by a judge to prepare an environmental impact report on school closures districtwide. The report, which the district is presently preparing, must be certified by a judge before the district can close Miraleste or any other school.

Since 1980, Palos Verdes school officials have closed five elementary and two intermediate schools as enrollment has declined. The number of students decreased from 17,800 students in 1973 to 8,939 in 1989.

Although the district had projected a further decrease in students, recent figures have shown that enrollment districtwide actually increased slightly this year, to 8,965.