City in Suburban L.A. Loses Its Bid To Secede

By Kerry A. White

The California state school board has turned down a request from a suburban city to break away from the Los Angeles schools, dampening the hopes of other groups that would like their areas to secede from the nation's second-largest district.

A group representing Lomita, a small, hilly city south of Los Angeles, had sought permission to chisel out a 2,000-student, three-school system from the 700,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District. But on April 7, the state board voted 7-4 against the plan.

Proponents of the Lomita measure had argued that a smaller district would be more manageable and its locally elected representatives more responsive...