PLUNGING ENROLLMENT COSTS VALLEY MILLIONS STUDENTS, FUNDS SHIFTING TO INNER CITY.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer

Plunging enrollment will cost Los Angeles Unified millions of state dollars this year, but the San Fernando Valley will feel a one-two funding punch with new schools opening over the hill drawing away more of their students.

New inner-city schools have cut the number of students bused to the Valley by half, taking with them state attendance-based funding as well as Title I federal funds allocated to educate low-income students from underprivileged neighborhoods.

Enrollment at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, for example, dropped from 3,500 last year to 2,995, according to figures released Friday for the first week of classes.

Veteran principal Al Weiner said the losses are the most dramatic he has ever seen in his 30 years as an administrator.

He predicted the resulting funding crunch will drive more campuses to seek charter status because state funding goes directly to charters rather than being funneled through the LAUSD. He also foresees an increase in private fundraising efforts to maintain services to students.

``It's a tremendous loss of revenue. Just about all of those kids are Title I students, so schools are losing a lot of that money,'' said Weiner, the former principal at Cleveland High who is now principal at Woodland Hills Academy.

``What's going to happen is the schools shrink in size, a lot of the teachers are going to be released ... and there won't be any money to spend, so a lot of schools in the Valley are talking about potentially becoming charter schools. We're looking at it. And schools are going to get very busy doing a lot of private fundraising.''

Woodland Hills Academy, formerly known as Parkman Middle School, is a prime example of what plunging enrollment can do to a high-performing, suburban school.

The campus lost hundreds of students to neighboring charters, private schools and school districts such as Las Virgenes, which forced it to cut teachers, one counselor and several classes just last year.

Teachers thought they could not compete with nearby schools, so they applied to the district to become a charter school.

The district ultimately convinced school representatives to remain a traditional public school, but it gave them charter-like flexibility in their finances and classes -- the first deal of its kind.

The district projects its enrollment this year will hover around 712,000, compared with 727,000 last year. Finalized enrollment figures will be released during the first week of October.

The district receives $5,500 per student from the state in average daily attendance funds, said Mark Shrager, deputy budget director for the LAUSD. That money goes toward paying teacher and administrator salaries.

Shrager noted that costs also decline when enrollment drops, but he estimated that revenue losses this year will exceed savings by $71million.

Declining enrollment at public schools is a trend occurring across California. Enrollment has dropped statewide by nearly 10,000 students, falling from 6,322,096 in 2004-05 to 6,312,393 in 2005-06.

District officials said schools were prepared for the enrollment drop this year, and they were better able to adjust staffing, programs and classes.

Mount Gleason Middle School in Sun Valley, which lost approximately 100 students from last year, faced losing a counselor's position but was able to identify other funds to salvage the job, Principal Jon McLaughlin said. The school lost other positions but was able to cover most through attrition.

Administrators maintain that some loss in enrollment may ease overcrowding in some Valley schools.

``Even if we have a little bit of a decline, it will be a positive thing because we would accelerate our schedule to get schools off a year-round calendar,'' said Jim Morris, Local District 2 superintendent, who oversees Valley schools.

``With the schools we're building and the anticipated enrollment decline, in most cases it's a positive thing. Our schools are so large anyway, a little bit of enrollment decline helps us at secondary level, since fewer students mean more personalization.''

But school officials say they themselves are walking a fine line in maintaining the right balance between enrollment and funding.

``You don't want to get too big because then it becomes very difficult to personalize instruction, but if you get too small, then you run the risk of not being able to offer the programs you know the kids need,'' Chatsworth High Principal Jeff Davis said, citing the possible loss of some of his campus' 21 Advanced Placement classes. ``We're around this size so we're able to offer those classes.''

A few Valley schools such as Chatsworth High bucked the trend by increasing their enrollment.

Davis attributed the increase to the administration's aggressive effort last year to sell its new programs, including a ninth-grade academy, to parents of students at nearby middle schools.

The school is up 98 students from the same time last year -- a number that could go up to 125 -- bringing its enrollment to 3,127, Davis said.

``We made a concerted effort to visit feeder middle schools, and we really wanted people to know we're doing things a little different, better, and there would be a more personalized instruction for our kids,'' he said.

School board member Jon Lauritzen said he's very concerned about the enrollment decline in the Valley. But he is also worried about the region's demographic shift because of the steady elimination of busing from the inner city. He thinks it should be carefully monitored over the next few years.

Busing from the inner city to Valley schools was cut nearly in half this year from 4,000 last year to 2,200.

Title I funds, which pay for supplementary services such as intervention classes, move with the low-income students, so Valley schools have received money that comes with students as well as the special funds that pay for those programs.

``I'm concerned about the ethnic makeup of Valley schools, and I'm hoping that we can maintain our magnet schools and other integration programs so that we don't end up being a segregated district,'' said Lauritzen, who represents Valley schools. ``We need to be very aware and watch that very closely.''

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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