WATSONVILLE — A draft report analyzing a controversial split in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District details the possibilities for secession, but leaves the final decision up to voters and the state Board of Education.

The report, released by school officials Wednesday, concluded that the potential for Aptos-area parents forming a new district would hinge on the construction of current plans to build a third high school, which itself faces an uphill battle with the state Coastal Commission.

The $40,000 report was compiled by a consultant and reviewed by a committee selected by Superintendent John Casey after school board members agreed to look at the issue in January. Their decision followed five years of often bitter public debate with Aptos-area parents demanding secession as a way to secure greater local control over schools and improve test scores.

Casey has asked for public input on the draft. However, no action on it is expected until after the November election, when voters will elect a new Aptos-area member to the current board. That member will take office in December.

“(The report) is not complete yet, and I think it’s premature to talk about it,” said Dan Hankemeier, one of two school board members on the committee.

Secession advocate and committee member Barbara Palmer said the report proves that splitting the district is possible and affordable.

“It’s good news for Aptos and good news for Watsonville,” Palmer said. “If this is passed from the board, they’re passing on the right to vote to the people in the district.’’

Opponents charge that the deeper issues behind the secession are racism and an attempt to raise Aptos-area home values by excluding Watsonville-based Mexican immigrants from its schools.

The report does conclude that a split would create community-based schools.

“Each new district would be oriented ... toward serving its respective core community,” the report reads. “The result would be more responsiveness from local boards to local community needs and local support systems.”

Within the scheme of the study and using enrollment projections for 2001, an Aptos district would include students in Aptos, La Selva Beach and parts of Larkin Valley and Corralitos. About 3,700 students would attend four elementary, one junior and one senior high school.

Watsonville, Pajaro and Las Lomas would remain in the Pajaro district, with about 17,200 students at 14 elementary, four middle and two senior high schools.

The draft showed that the current district is 23.7 percent white. If an Aptos district is created, it would be 79.2 percent white, while the remaining Watsonville district would be 13 percent white.

It also showed that the average per-person income in the Watsonville area is $11,044 compared to $22,707 in the Aptos area, according to 1990 U.S. Census figures.

Those differences, when translated into property values, would put an assessed valuation of a Watsonville district at about $2.83 million, compared to $2.98 million for an Aptos district.

The ability for an Aptos district to secure bonds to finance growth would be comparably higher as well. Although both districts would need to build new facilities, the growth projected for a Watsonville district is greater.

However, a Watsonville district would have more money for each student under state financing schemes and lower costs than an Aptos district.

The report does not make any final recommendations, but infers that voters in the district could have a say in any possible split. Trustees are expected to take up the matter in early 2000, but the state would have to approve any move to create an Aptos district.