RESEDA : Vote Spurs School Secession Agenda

A Reseda-based group of several hundred business leaders, teachers and parents lobbying for secession from the Los Angeles Unified School District are riding a crest of victory following the upheavals at City Hall.

With the election of Mayor Richard Riordan and City Council members Laura Chick and Richard Alarcon--all of whom favored restructuring the district in some form during their campaigns--Valley Advocates for Local Unified Education have secured a stronger base in city government than ever before, according to Chairman Bob Scott.

That support is anything but symbolic, Scott said.

For starters, Riordan’s support lends the cause credibility, he said. And his group also won a key backer in Richard Alarcon, a Latino, who has tentatively supported the idea of restructuring the district to allow more local autonomy, Scott said. The group plans to maintain steady pressure on city leaders to make sure the issue remains on everyone’s mind, he said.

Scott, a lawyer, said his group is pursuing the possibility that school district and city charters may contain legal avenues for the city to assert authority over the school district.

VALUE is first attempting to persuade the state Legislature to make secession easier, but if that fails, Scott said the group will shift its lobbying efforts to City Hall.

“There is a pretty strong support group (on the council) if we were to give them a device to use it,” said Scott.