GRANADA HILLS PRINCIPAL HONORED.

Byline: Naush Boghossian

Staff Writer

Granada Hills High was already one of the top schools in Los Angeles Unified in 2003 when its leaders started a grass-roots effort demanding to convert to a charter school because they wanted to be the best.

In spite of resistance from the district bureaucracy -- from which the school wanted to disentangle itself to do what it felt needed to be done to get better -- the school became the first high school in the San Fernando Valley and the largest in the nation to convert to charter control.

Five years later, the entire charter movement is recognizing the school's 39-year-old principal, Brian Bauer, for leading the charter revolution at the nation's second-largest school district and building a school that can serve as a model for others.

Bauer said receiving the Charter School Leader of the Year award is vindication of his efforts to fight the system.

"This is an award I take on behalf of all the stakeholders at Granada, who against what seems real insurmountable odds ... and in a vilified process, still made the decision to take this bold leap," said Bauer, who is set to receive the award today at the 15th annual California Charter Schools Conference in Sacramento.

"The results speak for themselves in what we've done in five years and it's only going to continue."

Criticism of the school at the time it wanted to convert to a charter was that it would be a "country club school" that wouldn't meet the needs of at-risk students or close the achievement gap, Bauer said.

But in five years, the 4,100-student school has risen 55 points on the state's achievement barometer, the Academic Performance Index, to 816 (the statewide goal for all schools is 800).

Special-education students improved by 55 points, African-Americans jumped 50 points and the socioeconomically disadvantaged and English- learner subgroups both jumped about 25 points, Bauer said.

"In getting this award, (it shows) that perseverance matters and the beneficiaries are the kids," said Caprice Young, head of the state's Charter Schools Association.

The school district has softened its objections to charters since Granada's conversion. At that time there were about 50 charter schools; now there are 125 -- the most of any school district in the nation.

"Granada Hills is a flagship charter school that has created new models of innovation ... so people know it as a school of excellence," Young said.

"And Bauer has established an esprit de corps in teaching staff and parents that has really propelled the school forward."

Today, Granada Hills High School has a 2,000-student wait list.

And Bauer hopes L.A. Unified and other school districts acknowledge the accomplishments and use the school as a model for improvement.

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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