In a switch, charters near Locke approved

After rejecting plans last month by a leading charter organization to reform one of the city’s worst high schools, a bitterly divided Los Angeles Board of Education reversed itself Tuesday at a chaotic and heated meeting.

Board member Jon Lauritzen had joined two other board members to vote down a proposal by Green Dot Public Schools to open several new charter campuses near Locke High in South Los Angeles. On Tuesday, Lauritzen called for a reconsideration of that vote and succeeded in overturning that controversial -- and potentially illegal -- decision.

The March 29 rejection of Green Dot was widely thought to have violated state laws that spell out when a board can deny a charter application. In the days after the vote, Lauritzen, who is locked in a close run-off election race, and the other board members who opposed the idea, came under intense criticism by many who said they were obstructing reform at one of the district’s schools that need it most.

Lauritzen did an about-face of sorts Tuesday evening at a special meeting called to reconsider the Green Dot vote.

The board approved a resolution proposed by Lauritzen that grants Green Dot permission to open its schools in the fall of 2008, a year later than Green Dot had sought.

The resolution also calls on district Supt. David Brewer to develop a broader, but still largely undefined, partnership with charter schools and the influential teachers union to reform the many struggling middle and high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Before the 4-2 vote, the meeting devolved into near chaos, as board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte challenged the board’s procedure for reconsidering the vote. Board President Marlene Canter struggled to maintain control of the meeting as LaMotte repeatedly and loudly interrupted her.

“The longer you keep on talking, the more foolish you are going to make us look!” an exasperated Canter told LaMotte.

“Well, I am going to look really stupid voting for this when it is something that it does not purport to be!” LaMotte shot back.

Three board members joined Lauritzen in voting for the motion. LaMotte and Julie Korenstein, who voted against the charters last week, remained opposed. The board’s seventh member, David Tokofsky, recused himself because he works for Green Dot.

Charters are publicly funded, independently run schools that, in exchange for increasing student performance, are allowed to develop their own curricula and are free from many of the other restrictions imposed on traditional schools.

Green Dot founder Steve Barr has clashed frequently with the board over his aggressive reform efforts. After a long and at times bitter power struggle, the board allowed Barr last year to open several schools around Jefferson High, another low-performing campus. In justifying their vote to deny the Locke schools, Lauritzen, Korenstein and LaMotte said they wanted more information about how the schools around Jefferson are faring.

Lauritzen said in an interview that he stands by his vote against Green Dot last month. He dismissed the idea that he changed his position in an effort to minimize voter anger, as his opponent in the run-off, Tamar Galatzan, has accused him of doing.

“There was no overall plan for Locke,” said Ed Burke, Lauritzen’s chief of staff. Lauritzen “was concerned about what happens to the students who would [not be enrolled by Green Dot].”

In the days after the initial vote, Brewer was able to convince Lauritzen that he is committed to the idea of developing a larger reform plan for Locke and other struggling high schools, both men said. Any such plan would have to overcome deep disagreements between the teachers union and Green Dot, including whether teachers and principals would be Green Dot employees and work outside the extensive labor agreement between the union and district.

Lauritzen and Brewer also said it was important to revisit the issue because of the board’s apparent transgression of state law.

“It was a mistake. Let’s just characterize it for what it was,” Brewer said.

Noticeably absent from the meeting Tuesday was Green Dot. Barr said he had not been consulted on the idea of waiting a year before opening charters near Locke and expressed uncertainty over whether he can proceed with plans to appeal the board’s earlier rejection to the Los Angeles County Board of Education.

He reiterated plans to open at least two schools near Locke in the fall using charters the board approved previously. After angrily rejecting further discussion with the district last month, Barr softened his stance somewhat Tuesday, saying he is open to continue talks with Brewer on ways to collaborate.

“If there is a way to figure out a way to do this together, of course,” he said.

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joel.rubin@latimes.com

Times staff writer Howard Blume contributed to this report.