| Wiseburn district gets vote
for high school
State board grants request
for a unification election. Centinela Valley officials fear loss of
dollars and diversity.
By Ian Hanigan - September 10, 2004
Daily Breeze
The Wiseburn school system is one step away from establishing its own high
school and severing ties with the struggling Centinela Valley Union High
School District after the state Board of Education on Thursday granted its
request to put unification on the March ballot.
And, in a decision that dramatically increases the likelihood of Wiseburn
becoming a full-service district with the addition of grades nine through
12, the board voted to limit the upcoming election to the
unification-friendly confines of Wiseburn's attendance area, which
includes Del Aire, Wiseburn and west Hawthorne.
"We finally got our day in court," Wiseburn Superintendent Don
Brann said. "We finally got our verdict."
The dual rulings came as a double blow to Centinela Valley officials, who
have fought Wiseburn's secession on the grounds that it would siphon
per-pupil dollars and diversity from the high school district while
eroding nearly half of its property tax base.
Even if the board felt an election were warranted, leaders in Centinela
Valley hoped the measure would be included on ballots throughout CVUHSD,
which also serves children from Hawthorne, Lawndale and Lennox.
"This has to do with Centinela Valley," CVUHSD board President
Maria Calix said Thursday. "Therefore, all of Centinela Valley should
have had a say on this."
But Wiseburn managed to win over state education officials with one key
concession: Split or no split, it promised to continue paying its share of
a $59 million construction bond measure floated by Centinela Valley in
2000.
While Wiseburn parents and educators were hailing the victory, some
Centinela Valley officials said the state board failed to consider how
difficult it will be for the high school district to pass future
facilities bonds with Wiseburn out of the equation.
Centinela Superintendent Cheryl White said Wiseburn's boundaries, which
circle several heavy-hitting corporate tenants in eastern El Segundo,
contain 47 percent of Centinela's assessed property value. With the
creation of a K-12 Wiseburn Unified School District, she said, the most
Centinela Valley could raise through facilities bonds would be $8,785 per
student, while Wiseburn could generate as much as $52,692 per pupil.
"I just have a real concern about having two districts side by side
-- one that is very, very wealthy and another that is struggling to have
funds to maintain and refurbish schools that are 70 years old," White
said from Sacramento.
White fears passage
Both White and Calix said their district planned to organize a campaign to
defeat the local measure in the March election. But White, for one, said
she was not optimistic.
"Since it's just the Wiseburn district voting," she said,
"why wouldn't they want their schools to be so much richer than
ours?"
Assuming residents back the unification plan, voters in March will also be
asked to pick a school board to govern their new district. Brann said
Wiseburn could have a high school up and running by the fall of 2006. An
unused campus in Del Aire that has been leased to the American Youth
Soccer Organization is a likely candidate to host the first batch of
ninth-graders.
"It's a huge relief to be past that," Brann said after the
meeting. "To have put so much effort into the cause and have it turn
out the way we were hoping is really a blessing and a victory for the
community all rolled into one."
For Wiseburn residents, the board's ruling was cause for celebration after
three years of proposals, signature-gathering, presentations and
feasibility reports -- all with the goal of establishing a safer,
less-crowded and higher-performing alternative to the campuses
administered by Centinela Valley.
And many assume a high school administered by Wiseburn would naturally
reflect that district's successful track record. On the state's most
recent Academic Performance Index, which ranks schools based on
standardized tests, Wiseburn as a whole posted a 784 out of 1,000, while
Centinela Valley students scored a collective 549.
And though Hawthorne, Lawndale and Leuzinger high schools have boosted
their test scores over the last two years, the gains weren't enough for
the 7,500-student district to avoid being placed on a list of 18
struggling systems in California that face sanctions unless they improve
over the next three.
Superintendent White said it will only become tougher to raise overall
student achievement without the influx of Wiseburn children. And because
permit students comprise about one-third of Wiseburn's total enrollment,
White fears that district will cherry-pick the best students from
Hawthorne, Lawndale and Lennox, dropping Centinela's test scores and
stripping it of its academic diversity.
Brann offered a different view.
"That's what No Child Left Behind, charter schools, private schools
and public schools are all about -- competition," he said. "If
you don't perform, then parents should have the opportunity to go
elsewhere."
Addressing the board Thursday, Richard Fuentes argued in favor of
Wiseburn's unification because, he said, the curriculum in Centinela
Valley is inadequate. He said he had to take remedial English and math
courses at San Diego State after graduating from Leuzinger High in 2000.
Ex-student praises decision
Though he said he will continue to cheer and support his alma mater,
Fuentes praised the board's decision, which he said could open the door
for the three other elementary districts that feed into Centinela Valley
-- namely the Hawthorne, Lawndale and Lennox systems. "I feel very
good," Fuentes said. "I think this is the beginning of a new
path for all of the elementary school districts to go ahead and
unify."
While talks have surfaced in the past about unifying Centinela's feeder
districts, Lawndale Superintendent Joe Condon has heard of no other
current plans.
"I suppose anything's possible," he said. "Whether or not
this triggers a renewed interest in that, it remains to be seen."
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