CHARTER SCHOOL PROPOSED ISLAMIC GROUP SEEKS QUALITY EDUCATION PLAN.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

PALMDALE - An Islamic congregation in Palmdale wants to establish a charter school that they say would provide quality education to children whose families can't afford private school tuitions, organizers say.

The charter school proposed by the American Islamic Institute of Antelope Valley would have grades kindergarten through eight and class sizes of no more than 20 students.

``Our project is very unique. It will have a very positive reaction to it,'' said Kamal Al-Khatib, chief financial officer for the Islamic Institute. ``We are doing it to help the poor. Anybody can come in. We are not catering to any certain group. You don't have to be Muslim to be in the charter school.''

Institute officials have met several times with Palmdale School District officials and plan to present their proposal to trustees in several months.

Superintendent Nancy Smith said the institute's plan, which calls for enrolling between 150 to 180 students, would be a first for the district.

``The only thing we are doing is going through the requirements with them as to what needs to be turned in to the board,'' Smith said. ``They have to have a complete package before we take it to the board. We have no problem as long it meets all state criteria.''

The school will teach the Arabic language and will not provide religious instruction during school hours, Al-Khatib said. The school, however, will offer religious instruction after school in non-mandatory classes.

``As a charter school there are some restrictions that adhere regarding teaching religion,'' Al-Khatib said.

Smith said it's OK under state law to have religious instruction before or after school but not during instructional time for which the school is getting pay from the state.

``Depending on the grade level, there are a certain number of minutes. Within that time period submitted to the state as instructional minutes, you can't teach religion,'' Smith said.

Smith also said the district will examine very carefully the financial aspects of the proposal.

``We need to protect Palmdale School District. There's a fiscal liability to it. We need to make sure they can stay fiscally viable and not put the district in any jeopardy,'' Smith said. ``If a charter school starts a program and bankrupts out, or they don't generate income or somebody isn't planning well and overspends, it leaves the district liable.''

Once a proposal has been presented to the board, trustees have 60 days to approve or reject it, Smith said.

If approved, the charter school would be the third in the Antelope Valley. The Antelope Valley Union High School District last year approved Henry Hearns Charter School of Excellence in Littlerock.

Another charter school, Opportunities for Learning, has two sites - one in Lancaster that is chartered through the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District and opened in November 1999, and one in Palmdale, which is chartered through the William S. Hart Union High School District and opened last October.

The institute school, which has so far signed up 85 students, would be located in an empty lot behind the institute's mosque on Palmdale Boulevard. Organizers plan to construct nine classrooms totaling 2,000 square feet, said Al-Khatib, a resident of Palmdale and owner of Hollywood Mortgage.

Al-Khatib said the institute's bylaws call for establishing a Masjid, or mosque, a school, and a cemetery and mortuary. The institute's cemetery and mortuary in Rosamond was established two years ago.

The money the school will receive from the state will not be enough to fund all the school's operations, so the school will have fund-raisers to raise the rest, Al-Khatib said.

``We have the ability to do that. We have been successful in past fund- raisers. We have built a mosque that cost $600,000, and we own a cemetery and mortuary,'' Al-Khatib said.

Al-Khatib said the school is going to offer the same kind of education available in Palmdale schools.

``We are adopting a similar curriculum to the Palmdale School District, an improved version of the curriculum,'' he said.

``The people we are dealing with, they can't afford to pay $300 to $400 a month for private school. We always have been poor-sensitive to people in our organization,'' Al-Khatib said.

Al-Khatib said there are 250 families in the Palmdale mosque, and he estimates there about 5,000 Muslims in the Antelope Valley.