Reformers who want to split Fresno Unified School District might be wise to look for a box stashed at the Fresno County Office of Education.

There, they would find a 14-year-old report that says Fresno Unified should be split up.

A group called the Commission on the Future of Education in Fresno County, organized by then-county schools Superintendent Pete Mehas, paid a consultant $50,000 to produce the report.

Its conclusions: Fresno Unified's enormous size slows it down and makes it unresponsive to student needs.

The consultant's work is still at the county office to this day -- languishing, Mehas said, because special interests in the district had no interest in changing the way Fresno Unified does business.

But Mehas, whose long education track record also includes working as Clovis Unified superintendent, California State University trustee and education adviser to former Gov. George Deukmejian, said he still stands by the commission's work because there is a large body of research that says districts with fewer than 35,000 children are more effective.

"Those who benefit from the status quo will fight to defend it," he said. "The more parent groups are involved, the less influence special-interest groups have. That's why there are so many forces who are going against it."

The concept of splitting the 73,000-student Fresno district has surfaced again. A group called Reform Fresno Unified announced last month that it intends to push this year for a breakup.

Count Mehas as one who thinks the idea is worth studying.

"District boundaries should not be sacrosanct," he said. "Over the years, cities have grown up around them, freeways have been built through them -- things change."

But some things haven't changed in Fresno. The district still includes wide swaths of poverty-stricken neighborhoods at the southern end and blocks of more affluent families at the northern end. Test scores still lag behind the rest of the state.

And today, as it was in 1998, any group lobbying to break apart the district is facing long odds against success.

Latest proposal

It's only been a few weeks since Reform Fresno Unified announced a campaign to break up Fresno Unified. Group leaders propose splitting it in half -- possibly along Blackstone Avenue.

They say one of their first priorities is to hire a consultant to draw boundaries and write the state application.

"We're hoping to find someone either from within the group itself or someone local," said Javier Guzman, one of the group's members. "But it's all very expensive, so fundraisers are already in the making."

Guzman said the group wants to put the question of splitting the district on the November 2012 ballot.

Tony Pings, one of Reform Fresno Unified's founding members and president of the Fig Garden Homeowners Association, said his group is in the early stages of planning its campaign. He wouldn't discuss in detail its membership or what the group has accomplished.

Previously, three people -- local environmental activist Marcie Williams; John Trenberth, owner of Pana-Pacific, a Fresno manufacturer of high-end truck equipment; and Abdullatif Toucara, the head of the Central Valley Kwanzaa Association -- joined Pings and Guzman representing Reform Fresno Unified at a news conference announcing the push for the new district.

Pings said the group has been reaching out to community advocates and has received "a lot of feedback." But he would not elaborate.

Beginning this month, he said, the group will elect leaders and plan for signature-gathering and the state application.