School District Is Prohibited From Fighting Initiative : Las Virgenes: A judge issues a restraining order, pending the outcome of a suit by a group that sponsored the ballot measure on private education.

A judge has forbidden the Las Virgenes Unified School District from distributing literature or conducting other district-funded activities to combat a statewide ballot initiative that would use tax dollars to help parents send their children to private schools.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien issued a temporary restraining order against the school district Monday, pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed against it last week by the Excellence through Choice in Education League, a Los Angeles-based organization that sponsored the proposed “choice” initiative.

In the suit, the league--which took similar legal action Thursday against the Los Angeles Unified School District--accused Las Virgenes officials of illegally using district resources to mobilize parental opinion by sending out a flyer decrying the controversial voucher plan and urging readers to “please join us in OPPOSING this destructive initiative.”

“This is just an example of how the funding has been skewed away from the classroom and into a political agenda,” league spokesman Kevin Teasley said. “They have spent time and energy trying to defeat something political as opposed to spending time on the children.

“The very people we’re entrusting with our children are turning toward a political agenda and are forcing that agenda upon the parents. It’s like saying, ‘Las Virgenes parents, we’re going to be distributing a Republican-only mailer,’ ” said Teasley, whose group is seeking a public apology from the district and a restoration of funds allegedly used to foment anti-voucher sentiment.

But district Supt. Albert D. Marley, named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit, said the flyer at issue was mailed to Lindero Canyon Middle School parents in a bimonthly newsletter composed by members of the campus Parent Faculty Club, an independent organization that does not use district money.

“We have to make a distinction between the district and the parent support groups,” he said. “They determined that they would prepare and send out the material, which we believe they have every right to do.

“And they handled it entirely in terms of cost involved,” said Marley, who acknowledged that the flyer would have been illegal had the district itself prepared and distributed it.

The lawsuit alleges that Las Virgenes district officials acted improperly by making available the district’s bulk-mail permit and mailing lists to distribute the parents club flyer, which contends in boldface type that the ballot proposal is “designed to destroy” public education. The flyers also bore the district’s Calabasas address.

However, Marley said, “all of the schools, including the parent support groups, use the district address as their return address.”

On Monday, the judge granted the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction against the district, citing a possible incursion of “irreparable injury” to the statewide drive to put the voucher plan on the November ballot. The unofficial deadline for collecting the 616,000 signatures needed for the proposed initiative is April 27.

If approved, the proposal, which is opposed by teachers, administrators and school boards across the state, would provide parents with “scholarships” equal to about $2,500--roughly half the amount spent per student by the state--that could be applied to parochial and private schooling.

The stated goal of the plan is to improve the quality of education by allowing their parents to select which schools, public or private, best suit their children’s needs.

A court date for the Las Virgenes Unified School District has been set for April 28.

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