The District is located in the western section of the County in the State of California (the “State”) and includes virtually all of the City of Lawndale, a portion of the Cities of Hawthorne and El Segundo, and an unincorporated territory in the community of Lennox, which includes residential and industrial areas. The District was formed in 1905 as the Inglewood Union High School District and became the Centinela Valley Union High School District in 1944. The District currently operates three comprehensive high schools, a continuation school and an adult school. In addition, as of June 30, 2013, there are zero affiliated charter schools operated by the District and five fiscally independent charter schools that are high schools within the District’s boundaries.
District Governance and Senior Management
The District is governed by a five-member Board of Education (the “District Board”) elected by voters of the District to serve alternating four-year terms. The members are elected to four-year terms in alternate slates of two and three and elections are held every two years. Each December, the District Board elects a President, Vice President and Clerk to serve one-year terms. Current members of the District Board, together with their office and the date their term expires, are listed below:
Name Office Term Expires
Hugo M. Rojas II President November 2013 Maritza R. Molina Vice President November 2013
Rocio C. Pizano Clerk November 2013
Gloria A. Ramos Member November 2015
Lorena L. Gonzalez Member November 2015
The Superintendent of the District (the “District Superintendent”) is responsible for administering the affairs of the District in accordance with the policies of the District Board and for the supervision of the District’s other key personnel. The District’s Superintendent and certain key administrative personnel are as follows:
Jose A. Fernandez, Superintendent. Mr. Fernandez has served as the District Superintendent since December 2008, after serving as Interim Superintendent. Mr. Fernandez has been with the District since 1999, previously serving as Assistant Superintendent of Adult Education and Continuing Education and Principal of Adult Education. Mr. Fernandez received his Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters of Arts degree in School Administration from Pepperdine University.
Ron Hacker, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services. Mr. Hacker has served in the Assistant Superintendent role for the District since December 2011, after serving as the District’s Business Services Administrator. Mr. Hacker has been with the District since 2008 and has worked in School Business and School Food Services since 2002. Mr. Hacker received his Bachelors of Arts degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed the School Business Management Program at University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education in 2007.
Possible Unification of Wiseburn School District
Wiseburn School District (“Wiseburn”) is a “feeder” elementary school district to the District. Currently, the vast majority of Wiseburn students generally attend one of the two DaVinci Academies, charter high schools operated by Wiseburn; less than 20% of Wiseburn students matriculate to the District’s high schools. On November 9, 2001, Wiseburn submitted a petition to the Los Angeles County Office of Education (“LACOE”) proposing that Wiseburn become a unified school district, the result of which would permit Wiseburn students to attend high schools within Wiseburn instead of the District. The potential effects of Wiseburn’s original unification effort were projected to include a decrease of the District’s assessed valuation of approximately 10%, a reduction of its statutory bonding capacity limit and, because no District high school facilities are located within Wiseburn territory, none of the District’s bonded indebtedness could be reallocated to Wiseburn’s taxpayers. LACOE recommended approval of Wiseburn’s petition on the condition that the election on Wiseburn’s petition extend to all of the registered voters within the District. Wiseburn’s petition was approved by the California Department of Education (the “CDE”), subject to a reallocation of a portion of the District’s bonded indebtedness to taxpayers within Wiseburn. Also, contrary to LACOE’s initial recommendation, the State Board of Education (the “State Board”) ordered that the election to consider Wiseburn’s petition be restricted to registered voters within Wiseburn.
Following litigation instituted by several school districts, including the District, the State Board concluded that questions had been raised about the sufficiency of the public notice preceding its prior decision and compliance with State environmental laws. At a hearing held in January 2005, the State Board rescinded its decision concerning Wiseburn’s petition. A draft environmental study regarding the potential impact of Wiseburn’s petition was released in July 2008 and finalized in December 2009 (the “2009 Environmental Impact Report”). Wiseburn’s petition was scheduled to be heard again by the State Board in May 2010. However, Wiseburn elected to remove its petition from the State Board agenda. The issue was tabled to explore a “regional solution” that could benefit all parties.
In May 2012, the District, Wiseburn, and three other feeder elementary school districts reached an agreement not to oppose the Wiseburn unification. Legislation (SB 477) signed by Governor Brown on September 28, 2012, ensured that Wiseburn residents pay for bonds approved before January 1, 2012. In April 2012, the District and Wiseburn reached a separate agreement that created a School Facilities Improvement District to maintain the District’s tax base in the commercial portions of Wiseburn. Wiseburn residents will not pay future bonds issued by the District and Wiseburn will forfeit its grades 9- 12 portion of the commercial tax base in Wiseburn once unification is completed. The net effect of these agreements is that the reduction in statutory bonding capacity limit has been minimized; this reduction is now only 0.12%.
The next steps in the process include State Board approval of the 2009 Environmental Impact Report and an authorization for a Wiseburn-only unification vote in November 2013. Regardless of the outcome of Wiseburn’s actions, the District expects that there will be sufficient ad valorem property tax revenues to pay the principal and interest on the Bonds and all of its other outstanding general obligation bonds.
DISTRICT FINANCIAL INFORMATION