Chick Joins Supporters of Schools Breakup : Politics: The City Council candidate says her decision was prompted, in part, by campus violence. She attacks Picus on the now-heated issue.

Los Angeles City Council candidate Laura Newman Chick on Monday became the latest in a long line of political hopefuls to advocate breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District--an issue of increasing importance in the mayoral and council races.

Chick, a Tarzana businesswoman running for the 3rd Council District seat representing the southwestern San Fernando Valley, said that breaking up the district would give control of the schools back to local communities.

“We have not only so much bureaucratic red tape but also so many people entrenched in the old way of doing things, which is clearly not working,” Chick said. “In order to move forward and re-create the kinds of schools parents all over the city want, I believe we have to tear it apart and start all over again.”

Chick said her decision was prompted, in part, by the need to take steps against school violence, such as the recent fatal shooting of a 17-year-old student at Reseda High School. Breaking up the district would give parents and schools greater responsibility in setting and enforcing standards, she said.

Chick also criticized her chief rival for the seat, saying four-term incumbent Joy Picus abdicated responsibility for schools. Chick said that Picus, her former boss, had a policy of referring all school-related calls directly to the school board.

But Picus, who also supports the school district breakup, said she has been a dedicated advocate of the schools, handing out diplomas at adult-school ceremonies and taking part in citizenship activities for grade-school students. After the Reseda High School shooting, Picus said, she spent the afternoon talking with students and teachers, dropped in the next morning during counseling sessions for students and attended a parents’ meeting later in the week.

She said she refers calls complaining about teacher transfers and administrative problems to the school board because she has no authority over such matters.

“To attack me as not doing anything for the schools is a campaign tactic, and I don’t believe it has any validity whatsoever,” Picus said.

The drive to break up the district, which has been discussed for years, was resurrected last summer in the wake of a school board reapportionment plan that opponents said disenfranchised the San Fernando Valley. New boundaries approved by the City Council in July eliminated one of two all-Valley seats and divided representation of the Valley among four board members.

The resulting controversy sparked a movement to withdraw the Valley from the mammoth Los Angeles school system--the nation’s second-largest, with 640,000 students. State Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), one of California’s most powerful politicians, threw his support behind the breakup effort and introduced a bill last month that could split the district into seven or more parts.

The issue has also become a hot potato in the mayoral race, with several candidates announcing their support for a breakup, although the mayor and the City Council legally have no authority over the city’s schools. On the other side, outgoing Mayor Tom Bradley has denounced the effort, joining several community groups that view the breakup drive as a racially motivated move to consign minority children to inferior inner-city schools.