$26 MILLION FOR 2 LOCAL CHARTERS CHIME, VAUGHN GET CASH.

Byline: Jennifer Radcliffe Staff Writer

Two of the San Fernando Valley's top charter schools snagged more than $26 million in bond money to expand their campuses - part of $277 million distributed to charters this week by the State Allocation Board.

CHIME Charter School in Woodland Hills, recently named charter of the year by the California Charter School Association, will receive about $3.4 million to build a permanent campus for its middle school. The Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima - the Valley's oldest charter school - will receive $23 million to build a new high school and language development elementary school.

The money, approved by voters in March via Proposition 55, will be spread among 28 established charter schools, including 13 in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It will help them overcome their largest obstacles - finding and buying buildings.

``It means that these charter schools don't have to pay for a mortgage or rent out of their operating costs. It's a wonderful thing,'' said Anita Landecker, executive director of ExED, a Santa-Monica based nonprofit group that works with charter schools.

``This will allow them to get a really nice facility and to look like a school.''

Many start-up charters lease space in strip malls or rent bungalows because they cannot afford their own buildings. CHIME and Vaughn are among 68 charter schools already operating in LAUSD, and that number is expected to continue to grow.

Vaughn will build an International Studies Academy High School. When that building is complete in mid-2006, Vaughn leaders expect to start construction on another elementary school featuring instruction in two or three languages: English and either Spanish or Chinese, or both.

``We have been on pins and needles to see if we got it or not,'' said Anita Zepeda, a director at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center.

Zepeda said the state's commitment shows that voters have higher expectations for the public school system. Charters are free, public schools that have more flexibility from state regulations than their traditional counterparts.

Los Angeles Unified leaders agreed Thursday that they are feeling increased pressure to improve their own schools. Mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg has based his campaign on breaking up the nation's second largest district, and a new community alliance is pushing politicians to support smaller schools.

LAUSD Board President Jose Huizar signed the Small School Alliance pledge Thursday, agreeing to advocate for schools with fewer than 500 students that have high expectations, local control, parental participation and longer after-school care hours. He will ask the entire board to back the pledge March 8.

``I was a bit skeptical at first,'' Huizar said. ``But this effort is an effort to leverage what has been working in LAUSD.''

Jennifer Radcliffe, [phone]

jennifer.radcliffe(at)dailynews.com