Split-Up Could Spark Battle Over Busing--With a Twist : Education: Southern part of county wants kids closer to home if district breaks up. West Valley may want to force transfers to keep enrollments--and aid--up.

Southern Los Angeles parents, who for decades have been forced to bus their children to schools in the San Fernando Valley and on the Westside, have begun drafting their own plan to secede from the Los Angeles Unified School District with the hope of finally keeping students close to home.

Several plans are being developed for a separate South-Central Los Angeles district that would seek to keep students in their own neighborhoods--either by building new schools to supplement the area’s aging, overcrowded campuses or by converting to double sessions.

“There is nothing in cement about how the school district should be organized or structured,” said Sylvester Hinton, a parent who attended a community meeting Friday at Hyde Park Boulevard Elementary School to launch the effort. “We need to take care of our children.”

Busing also appears to be a factor as parents and politicians in the cities of Bell, Huntington Park and South Gate closely monitor the county’s growing movement to dismantle the nation’s second-largest public school system. Those communities in the southeast area of the county, which have some of the most overcrowded schools in the district, each year send thousands of students to campuses miles away.

A chronic source of bitterness within the sprawling school district, busing also promises to inject tension into competing breakup campaigns. Because many west San Fernando Valley schools rely on bused students to boost enrollment--and, in turn, state funding--breakup advocates there say they would probably maintain old transportation agreements.

A renewed battle over busing was foreshadowed in a letter mailed last week by three southeast county officials who warn that the area’s children are likely to be sought by fledgling school systems in need of cash.

“Remember,” states the letter sent to the councils of Bell, Maywood and Huntington Park, “some areas may try to include OUR area in THEIR plans as we are the area in the district WITH THE KIDS, and hence, future MONEY.”

Freeing their children from the tedium of long bus rides and establishing their own schools and special programs were among the concerns voiced in Southwest Los Angeles on Friday night.

Meeting at Hyde Park School, about 25 parents, activists and school district employees began laying the groundwork for their own school system.

“We have to talk about it and plan it--otherwise, someone will do it for us,” said Board of Education member Barbara Boudreaux, who calls the weekly meetings to discuss community concerns. “We don’t want to be left out.”

About 78,000 students were bused throughout the system during the 1992-93 school year, according to Los Angeles Unified records, with nearly 19,000 going to the Valley. The district’s busing program includes voluntary transportation for students in the magnet program and those who prefer to attend schools outside their neighborhoods, as well as mandatory busing for students who cannot be accommodated by local schools. Nonetheless, activists acknowledged that land and money for new schools are scarce and that continued busing seems inevitable, at least for a few years.

Financing school construction in new districts is an issue that a State Allocation Board subcommittee has begun examining, not only because of the breakup movement in Los Angeles County but because of the creation of new districts in other parts of the state.

The board distributes money to districts to build schools based on current need, future enrollment projections and ability to match funds. Now, no money is available for new school construction.

“It’s a multimillion-dollar issue,” said Joel Kirschenstein, a subcommittee member, adding that he believes financing is so crucial it needs to be addressed before reorganization plans for new districts can be adopted.

Kirschenstein and Los Angeles attorney Laurence Labovitz plan to address the topic this week at a meeting of the San Fernando Valley United Chambers of Commerce, which is scheduled to discuss the burgeoning breakup movement and the group’s hopes for several Valley districts.

But the need for new schools is particularly pressing at the southern end of the 708-square-mile school system.

“Your work is really only just beginning,” said Carolyn Harris, a breakup leader in Carson who attended the meeting at Hyde Park School. “You need money and resources . . . and you need to develop a good, solid plan.”

Breakup advocates in Carson have been organizing for a couple of years. In an effort to place the issue before voters as soon as possible, they plan to file petitions on Sept. 8 with the Los Angeles County Office of Education in order to qualify for a ballot.

Boudreaux, who once opposed breaking up the 640,000-student system but now endorses the effort, said Southwest Los Angeles activists ought to develop three or four plans. She said the group should be ready to respond to plans from other parts of the district as well.

Boudreaux last week joined several district officials softening their stance on the breakup movement, which was enhanced by recent state legislation making it easier to place such an initiative before voters.

Supt. Sid Thompson had earlier announced that he would not fight a breakup campaign if it improved education, and assigned a top district official to provide information to all sides in the debate.

Even leaders of the district’s powerful teachers union, who once scoffed at the breakup idea, have met with county education officials to better understand the steps involved in dismantling the huge system.

Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, stopped short of pledging that the union would push its own breakup plan, but said: “The union is going to pursue anything that is in the interests of the students we teach and the members we serve.”

Clearly, as the Valley’s breakup campaign gains momentum, parents and politicians elsewhere are watching closely.

“Let the Valley pull out--maybe that reduction alone will change things significantly for us,” said Ric Loya, a Huntington Park High School teacher and city councilman who co-signed the letter predicting a busing battle.

South Gate Mayor Albert Robles said his city should definitely pursue withdrawing from Los Angeles Unified. Loya and others in the area said they have no doubt that they will seek to secede from the district--though not for several years.