DISTRICTS FACE SANCTIONS OVER LACK OF PROGRESS LAW: ANTELOPE VALLEY SCHOOLS FAIL TO MEET STANDARDS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Six Antelope Valley school districts are facing state sanctions for persistently failing to make adequate academic progress, officials said Wednesday.

The state has recommended that the Keppel Union School District receive the harshest intervention in which it would be assigned an assistance team that could suggest corrective actions.

"I think the state has done a good job of coming up with a solution that will be effective and will help us in light of a very difficult and cumbersome law that they are required to implement," Keppel Superintendent Linda Wagner said, referring to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"The state's decision to allow us to work with a team will actually be welcomed. I'm sure they will have ideas and suggestions that will benefit us and maybe we haven't thought of yet."

Recommended for less-severe sanctions were the Antelope Valley Union High, Lancaster, Palmdale, Wilsona and Eastside Union school districts.

The six Antelope Valley school districts are among 13 in Los Angeles County and 97 statewide facing sanctions for the first time under the No Child Left Behind Act because they have not met student-achievement goals for five years.

The recommended sanctions, if approved by the state Board of Education at its March meeting, will affect about 2 million public school students.

The 96 districts and the Orange County Office of Education were assigned to one of four levels of intervention: intensive, moderate, light and "other."

Keppel and five other districts were in the intensive category and should be assigned a so-called District Assistance and Intervention, or DAIT, team of education experts, the state said.

The team would analyze the district and recommend steps that can include replacing personnel, appointing a trustee over the district, or, in the most serious cases, abolishing and restructuring the district.

Thirty-eight other school districts -- including Antelope Valley Union High, Lancaster, Palmdale and Wilsona -- face moderate sanctions in which they would get to choose their DAIT team from an approved list of providers.

The districts would be required to adopt an improvement plan developed by the team.

Forty-two districts, among them Eastside Union, face light sanctions and would receive technical assistance.

The remaining districts would have to revise their education plans, officials said.

One district, Coachella Valley Unified, will be assigned a trustee under terms of an earlier agreement with the state.

"We are the first state in the union that is really doing something about failing schools and coming up with individualized plans," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a press conference.

State officials said $45 million in federal funds was available for the improvement plan.

Antelope Valley school officials said they welcomed the additional help that will come as part of the sanctions.

"It's like having another pair of eyes to look at how the district operates," Palmdale Superintendent Roger Gallizzi said. "We don't look upon it as a threat. We look upon it as an opportunity."

Brett Neal, director of student improvement at the Antelope Valley Union High School District, said the district has been making progress on its own.

"We see great things. We want to continue that. We welcome any assistance that an outside group can provide us," Neal said.

School officials have said in the past that schools overall have been improving but districts are being penalized because subgroups of students such as English-language learners and special-education students have not met their targets.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

661-476-4586