CHARTER SCHOOL HOPES IN DANGER LAURITZEN SEEKING MORATORIUM.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

Incoming LAUSD board member Jon Lauritzen has called for a one-year moratorium on charter school petitions, jeopardizing efforts by two top-notch San Fernando Valley high schools to obtain independence.

El Camino Real and Granada Hills high schools - headed by father-son principals Ron and Brian Bauer - have filed charter petitions with the Los Angeles Unified School District, hoping to open as independent public campuses in September. If successful, they would be the first large-scale conversions in the nation.

Their petitions come just as United Teachers Los Angeles has wrested control of the school board from a pro-charter reform slate.

The teachers union, which bankrolled Lauritzen's election, has been critical of the thriving reform movement - a movement that has led many teachers to break off their membership with the union.

Granada Hills parent Sonja Eddings Brown is troubled by Lauritzen's proposed moratorium and what it might bode for the future of educational reform in the nation's second-largest school district.

``If a neighborhood school cannot have the freedom to determine its own destiny in a public school system, where are we as a district?'' she asked. ``We are stagnant, and we are squashing new ideas in a district that is desperate for solutions.''

Brown said Granada Hills' aspirations are to become ``a laboratory of solutions'' that will help other LAUSD campuses. El Camino Real in Woodland Hills has similarly lofty goals.

``If there isn't room for a model 21st century high school in LAUSD, then we have a problem,'' she said.

Divided board

With union and reform board members already lining up on different sides of the issue, the rift on the board is widening.

Outgoing board President Caprice Young, who was defeated by Lauritzen, champions both El Camino Real and Granada Hills' charter petitions. She said she would put them on the board agenda before she leaves office, possibly as early as next month.

``Charters are an excellent way to innovate and improve the education of our students,'' she said. ``Why would anyone want to delay that? I don't think there is any reason why the district needs a moratorium.''

UTLA helped Lauritzen and Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte defeat Young and board member Genethia Hudley Hayes in the March 4 election. Union-backed candidates now hold four of the seven school board seats, including members Julie Korenstein and David Tokofsky, who is heading into a runoff against Nellie Rios-Parra in May.

``I've always had a little bit of reservation about charters,'' said Lauritzen, who will take office July 2. ``What really concerns me now that I will soon be voting on the board is the liability the district will incur because of the charters.''

Charter schools are exempt from most regulatory constraints and enjoy control of their curriculum, resources and operations. Parents, educators and community leaders operate the schools under contract with school districts. They can be shut down if they fail to achieve their goals to raise academic achievement.

There are currently 54 charter schools in LAUSD, including nine in the Valley. The movement is gaining momentum with a recent announcement from the Los Angeles Alliance for Student Achievement to serve up to 50,000 students in charters in five years.

Lauritzen worries, for example, if a charter school is sued for failing to follow laws, the district would be responsible for its legal defense.

``If you get too many charters, do we have to put together a huge bureaucracy to oversee the charters?''

No union position

UTLA officials said they have not taken an official position on the two schools' conversion proposals. Union President John Perez insisted his organization is not opposed to charter schools but it does view them as unproven experiments.

If the school board adopts a moratorium on charters or rejects the petitions of El Camino Real and Granada Hills, the schools are entitled under the law to seek authorization from the county or state boards of education.

The schools' charter petitions are unusual in several ways.

The charter school movement has been historically championed by failing inner-city schools. Both high schools rank in the top 20 percent of schools statewide, according to the California Academic Performance Index. El Camino is known for its Academic Decathlon achievements, winning state and national titles in recent years.

``The real question is what can they do as a charter that they can't do as a regular school,'' said Grace Arnold, director of LAUSD's charter schools unit. ``They would almost certainly have to make a compelling argument what they are going to do as a charter is so much more significant.''

If successful, some believe El Camino Real and Granada Hills represent the wave of the future.

``I think educators within the existing school system are seeing innovations occurring in charter schools, and they want the freedom to innovate as well,'' said Gary Larson, spokesman for the California Network of Educational Charters.

Charter pioneer Yvonne Chan, who heads the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima, said the two high school conversions could lead to a charter district in the Valley.

``High schools are your anchors,'' she said. ``The elementary and middle schools will drift toward (them) and start forming families of charter schools to become a charter district.''

Both traditional calendar schools, Granada Hills serves 3,800 students and El Camino Real 3,600.

Because of their high profile and academic excellence, their desire to become charter schools has been controversial among some teachers and parents. At a recent community meeting at El Camino Real, some parents expressed the attitude of ``why fix it, if it ain't broke?''

State law requires signatures from just 50 percent of a school's permanent teaching staff to convert a regular public school into a charter campus. Of 123 permanent teachers at Granada Hills, 121 signed the petition, according to Principal Brian Bauer.

A majority of permanent teachers at El Camino Real also endorsed the school's petition, but some long-time teachers have voiced complaints to UTLA, alleging they were pressured to sign the petition. Principal Ron Bauer denied the allegations.

Local UTLA chapter chairs at both schools say they passionately support conversion and described their faculty as largely in favor of it as well.

Freedom to experiment

Teachers and parents at both schools cite the same reasons for seeking charter status. They want the freedom to experiment with new programs without having to seek permission from downtown bureaucrats. They want to put more resources into the classroom and exercise control over everything from curriculum and class sizes to cafeteria service and maintenance.

``We want to be able to decide if we want to buy new textbooks for our school, not just to get them because the whole district is getting them,'' said Brown, a parent member of Granada Hills' Leadership Council.

``We want to quit sitting around and make do and let LAUSD decide where the money goes.''

The charter effort at Granada Hills gained momentum last year when the district overturned the school's stringent attendance policy, which drops and fails a student from a class after 15 absences. Absences shot up once the policy was overturned.

El Camino Real parent Aaron Yusem said charter status is appealing because all decisions about the school would be made by an elected body composed of parents, teachers and staffers.

``If I, as a parent, have a concern, I am going to go to El Camino Real. I am not going to have to drive downtown and see maybe if I will get to see someone. It's going to be resolved right here.''

The two charter petitions also have gained impetus because LAUSD is scaling back school resources due to a statewide budget crunch. The district in recent years has also mandated more and more one-size-fits-all literacy programs in an effort to raise test scores.

``Having someone tell you what to do and how to do it is demoralizing,'' said Elisa Ragu, a 16-year English teacher at Granada Hills.

She is discouraged that a high-achieving school like hers has to set aside highly successful programs they have devised on their own in order to comply with district mandates that are better suited to low-achieving schools.

Teachers like Angela Thompson at Granada Hills are frustrated with inadequate resources to do their jobs. The biology teacher recalled a time when a supplier rejected her order for dissection frogs because the district had not paid its bills on time.

As a charter school, she said, Granada Hills will have the ``ability to make decisions based on concrete budget sheets'' and cut its own checks to buy supplies and pay for services.

In an era of diminishing resources, Jack Koenig, a history teacher at El Camino Real, believes the only way to maintain academic excellence at his school is to go charter.

``When people find out you work at ECR, they say it's a good school. We are proud of it. We want to keep it that way,'' he said. ``We think charter is the best way to do it.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Granada Hills High School Principal Brian Bauer said that of 123 permanent teachers at the school, 121 voted recently to become a charter school.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) El Camino High School Principal Ron Bauer displays some of the school's educational and athletic honors. El Camino hopes to become a charter school.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer