REFORM BURST AT LAUSD ROMER: RECENT ADVANCES NOT PROMPTED BY MAYOR.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer

For the third time this summer, Los Angeles Unified School District officials rolled out a new program Tuesday that critics said was implemented hastily in response to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school-reform drive.

The newly announced expansion of the district's vocational-education program is designed to stem the tide of dropouts, as well entice to those who have left school to return and earn their diplomas.

Just three weeks earlier, the district launched the $10 million Diploma Project, which deploys advisers to 80 schools to help keep at-risk students in school.

And in June, the district announced a $36 million program to overhaul the district's 17 lowest-performing schools by hiring teachers and counselors.

Although city officials commend the district's recent dropout-prevention efforts, they say the programs could have been implemented years ago and are only in response to Villaraigosa's efforts to change the governance structure of the district and gain a greater role by overseeing schools.

``New programs and ideas that address the LAUSD's dropout crisis are absolutely essential,'' said Nathan James, a spokesman for the mayor. ``For years, the district has refused to recognize the size of this problem and today's students are paying the price.

``This announcement is a direct result of Mayor Villaraigosa's leadership in raising the issue of dropouts and advocating for fundamental school reform.''

School board member Mike Lansing said the unveiling of the vocational program fulfills a yearslong promise to concentrate on the needs of older students.

``Our focus has been on elementary students and programs,'' Lansing said during a news conference Tuesday at the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center. ``We know our focus now has to be on secondary students.''

Currently, about 1,000 students are enrolled in the vocational-education programs, but district officials hope to expand that tenfold. Officials plan to combine a more rigorous curriculum with work-based learning in fields such as nursing, plumbing and computer repair.

``There is a full-fledged dropout prevention under way,'' Superintendent Roy Romer said. ``We're going to provide an additional track, a vocational track.

``We're going to make it more attractive for students to return and finish high school.''

Officials said the expanded vocational offerings, the Diploma Project and other dropout-prevention programs will be funded with $18.6 million allocated in the current fiscal budget.

The quick succession of reform efforts has raised eyebrows among city leaders, who say the district made them a priority only in response to Villaraigosa's efforts.

Villaraigosa persuaded the state Legislature to pass Assembly Bill 1381, which is awaiting a promised signature from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by the end of the month. The legislation gives the mayor a significant role in the district while shifting authority from the school board to the superintendent.

City Controller Laura Chick, a Villaraigosa ally, said the district's recent effort to slow its dropout rate is disingenuous.

``I have watched LAUSD basically ignore and completely under-resource the whole issue of students not going to school, becoming chronic truants and then true-blood high school dropouts. To pretend this has been a priority item that they have been hard at work on is disingenuous at the least and it's not the case,'' Chick said.

``It should have been something they fixed and addressed a long time ago.''

United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy said the district is implementing improvements in response to increased pressure on all fronts.

``They're moving so quickly now because not just the city government apparatus but UTLA has been putting maximum pressure on them to start moving quickly,'' Duffy said.

But Romer rejected that notion and said the district has been working on a long-range plan that was developed years ago.

``There's still a series of things we're going to lay out, but we always said we would start in elementary, then go to middle schools, then high schools,'' Romer said. ``It's part of how you evolve a district that's reforming.''

Duffy, who has been pushing the expansion of vocational offerings for more than a year, said district officials did not work with him and the teachers in developing the program.

In fact, Duffy said, the district stopped working with him after the union collaborated with Villaraigosa on AB 1381.

He said he will send a letter to Romer requesting a cost breakdown of the new program and how the money will be spent.

``We want to see where all this money is going. Is it actually going to classrooms and the creation of vocational-education programs? Or is it going to salaries and administrative costs?

``Because if that's their idea of reform, then we're not interested in that.''

Villaraigosa said the district's vocational-education efforts are important, but not enough to keep Los Angeles an economically first-class city.

James, the mayor's spokesman, said Villaraigosa wants to expand the vocational options beyond the traditional auto repair and manual trades and focus on high-tech skills such as computer programming and technology.

He also wants to connect schools with businesses, expand internships and bring business leaders into the classrooms to make high school more relevant for students.

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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