School District Vote Proposal Rejected

The State Board of Education on Friday rejected a staff recommendation that voters on the east side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula be allowed to decide whether they want to form a new school district.

Though the board’s staff in July said the proposed district would not significantly disrupt the quality of education children would receive, board member Kenneth Peters said the proposed district could not conduct “a comprehensive program that all secondary students need.”

The board’s action came despite pleas by the East Peninsula Education Council, the parents’ group that has sought to split the district, to delay a vote on the matter until after November’s school board election. Three seats on the district’s board will be filled in the election.

The parents’ group was formed after the school district decided in 1987 to close Miraleste High School, the only high school on the peninsula’s east side, because of declining enrollment.