Valley PTSA Launches Breakup Campaign : Education: As movement gains, group seeks members for task forces that will work on proposals for smaller school districts.

One day after Gov. Pete Wilson signed legislation making it easier for voters to dismantle the Los Angeles Unified School District, the San Fernando Valley Parent Teacher Student Assn. launched its own campaign to create a citywide panel to marshal the breakup campaign.

Bobbi Farrell, legislative adviser to the 31st District PTSA, said Thursday that the group cannot afford to wait for other groups--or the legislators themselves--to form task forces to devise proposals for new, smaller districts.

“We need to get started,” Farrell said. “We’ve decided this needs action. We want to let people know we are doing this and we want to get going.”

The PTSA plans to send letters today to about 50 people--including school district and union officials, community leaders and academics--inviting them to serve on one of seven task forces that ultimately will formulate a breakup proposal.

Wilson signed legislation Wednesday, written by state Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills), that dramatically reduces the number of signatures required before a breakup plan can be placed on the ballot. Perhaps more important, it eliminates the veto power that the Los Angeles Board of Education had over such plans in the past.

Wilson also is expected to sign legislation authored by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) that will require new districts to preserve the LAUSD’s racial and funding policies.

The PTSA’s push for a citywide committee comes on the heels of a meeting earlier this week by a local group of breakup supporters, Valley Advocates for Local Unified Education. That group also is seeking to devise a plan and has agreed to hold informational meetings.

Nonetheless, Farrell said the PTSA believes that it must be involved in the issue and that the group could include VALUE members.

Doug Lasken, who helped organize the VALUE meeting on Tuesday evening, said the groups need to coordinate efforts. “It sounds as if they’re saying they are the ones who are going to do it,” Lasken said. “I’d like to speak to them so we’re not duplicating efforts.”

All of this activity, however, may be premature, according to Sandy Brown, Hayden’s deputy chief of staff.

“I don’t think it’s wise for any group to do anything right now,” Brown said.

“Everyone’s afraid they will be left out. It will work itself out. The guy in first doesn’t necessarily get the best and the guy who’s last isn’t necessarily left out. There’s a lot of running but no one knows where he or she is running to,” she said.

But Farrell feels the breakup effort will benefit from having a citywide committee examine seven areas: socioeconomic diversity, governance, facilities, labor, budget, education code mandates and laws, and student programs and services.

“Now that enabling legislation [Hayden’s bill] will soon be signed by the governor, 31st District PTSA feels the need to research and pull forward a plan that ultimately will be put before the voters,” the letter states.

Cecelia Mansfield, a past PTSA president who has long supported a breakup, said a valid plan could best be devised by a citywide group with expertise in the breakup movement and experience with the district.

“Petitions are so far in the future,” Mansfield said. “Coming up with a plan and addressing all the criteria is going to be the hard part. You really need a citywide look to see how it can be done.”

Diana Dixon-Davis, a former vice president of the PTSA and a breakup activist, thinks an independent group should devise the plans with community input. “I think it’s dangerous for any group to tell a community what they should do,” Dixon-Davis said. “That’s what everyone hated about L.A. Unified--they tell everyone what to do all the time.”

But Farrell and Mansfield stressed that they want their group to be inclusive. “We don’t want to work at cross-purposes,” Farrell said. “We want to get to a plan that will pass.”