dismantled because the district's attorney concluded that the inclusion of race as a factor inadmittance put it in violation of Prop 209. He made his determination even though, as Beverly Hills Board of EducationPresident William Brien noted, "no program child has ever displaced a Beverly Hills resident, and there are no parents whoopenly oppose it." Once the report came back from the attorney, the board accepted it without a formal vote and asked the superintendent'soffice to figure out how to dismantle the program. Parents say they did not learn about the decision until this spring. The only apparent voice of opposition belongs to board member Gerald Lunn, who said he was the one who proposeddetermining the legality of the program. While agreeing that the program does have its merits and that "it's good for kids to meetpeople with different backgrounds," Lunn said it is illegal because it offers racial preferences. Furthermore, he said, unnamed parents have intimated to him that it has been used to bring minority athletes into the district tohelp the school's teams. However, no other school or board official interviewed could recall such a complaint ever beingformally lodged. At a public hearing last month, nobody showed up to protest the program, while more than 200 people turned out to offer theirsupport, including attorney Lew Hollman, who works for a nonprofit organization called the Center for Law in the PublicInterest. He had read about its elimination and attended to offer a legal opinion. "I think they acted too hastily," he said. "The applicability of Proposition 209 hasn't been tested in school districts, and yet herewas a district dropping a program based on what I consider bad legal advice." His advice helped prompt the Board of Education to order district officials to examine ways to salvage the program. Whatever the solution, according to Brien, at least the students currently in the program will be allowed to make it th...
