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Wiseburn district may get a
high school
Deal to keep paying share of construction bond may ease secession.
By Ian Hanigan - Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Daily Breeze
For the better part of three years, residents and educators in the
Wiseburn School District have waged a battle to turn their small but
high-performing kindergarten-through-eighth-grade district into a
full-service K-12 system.
That's three years of signature gathering, presentations and feasibility
reports -- all with one eye on the prize of seceding from the troubled
Centinela Valley Union High School District, which administers three high
schools and one continuation site in Hawthorne and Lawndale.
Now it all comes down to Thursday, when Wiseburn's proposal to split from
Centinela Valley will live or die by a vote of the state Board of
Education. The 11-member panel can rule one of three ways:
The board can authorize a limited election, letting the voters of Wiseburn
decide if they want their own unified school district; it can authorize an
areawide election for the larger Centinela Valley region, which includes
the cities of Hawthorne, Lawndale and Lennox; or, it can stamp out the
unification movement altogether.
Most agree a limited vote for the residents of Del Aire, Wiseburn and west
Hawthorne -- Wiseburn's attendance area -- would bode well for secession.
Expand the vote, and Wiseburn is likely to keep saying goodbye to kids
after the eighth grade.
"It's going to be a tough road for us if we have to do to an areawide
election," Wiseburn school board President Brian Meath said Tuesday.
That's partly because Centinela Valley, which serves about 250 children
from within Wiseburn's boundaries, stands to lose a large portion of its
tax base if Wiseburn bolts. Many also fear a loss of per-pupil dollars
that could impact programs for remaining students at Hawthorne, Lawndale
and Leuzinger high schools.
But Wiseburn leaders have cut a deal to at least soften the blow. District
officials have agreed to keep paying Wiseburn's share of a $59 million
construction bond measure passed by Centinela Valley in 2000, regardless
of the split.
Bolstered by the presence of corporate giants like Boeing, Raytheon and
Mattel in eastern El Segundo, Wiseburn accounts for 40 percent of
Centinela Valley's property tax base. If Wiseburn were to walk away from
the facilities bond, the financial burden would spike significantly in
surrounding communities.
With Wiseburn's pledge to keep paying, the state Department of Education
on Thursday will recommend a unification vote, one to take place in
Wiseburn only. If at least six board members agree, local voters will get
a chance to weigh in next March. An unused school site in Del Aire
currently leased to the American Youth Soccer Organization could begin
serving ninth-graders as early as fall 2006, according to Superintendent
Don Brann.
Brann said Wiseburn families have been fighting for their own high school
for years. In addition to demanding a safe, gang-free campus, parents want
their children in a smaller, more intimate setting with a sharp focus on
academics, he said.
"They want to see us put our seal of approval on a high school
because they know we consistently deliver for the kids," Brann said.
Indeed, Wiseburn scored a 784 on the state's most recent Academic
Performance Index, which ranks schools on a scale of 200 to 1,000 based on
standardized tests. And, districtwide, 49.8 percent of its students were
deemed proficient or better in English on a federal report, while 44
percent met the same benchmark in math.
By contrast, Centinela Valley students scored a 549 on the API -- a
17-point improvement over the previous year. And its schools posted
proficiency rates of 28.6Â percent in English and 24.3 percent in math.
The 7,500-student district was also recently placed on a state watch list
along with 17 others that failed to meet federal standards for two
straight years.
Neither Centinela Valley Superintendent Cheryl White nor school board
President Maria Calix immediately returned calls seeking comment Tuesday.
But White, who was promoted to the top administrative office earlier this
summer, has said her district is poised for a major upswing based on
increased teacher training, extra English courses for struggling
ninth-graders, districtwide diagnostic tests and a collaborative approach
to instruction.
Brann claims Centinela leaders have been making similar promises for
years.
"It's not happening," he said. "It just never happens, and
the community members here -- especially those who have children in the
schools -- are out of patience."
Wiseburn, with an enrollment of about 2,000, is one of four districts that
feed into Centinela Valley along with the Hawthorne, Lawndale and Lennox
systems. About two years ago, a similar unification campaign fizzled in
the Hawthorne School District after proponents there failed to collect
enough signatures.
Hawthorne Superintendent Don Carrington said that while many will be
watching Wiseburn's drive with interest, the proliferation of charter high
schools in the area may have slaked parents who were thirsting for more
choices.
"That was a safety valve measure," he said. "I think in
some regards, that's been the avenue for parents who didn't want to leave
the area but wanted other options."
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