UPHILL BATTLE : SCHOOL FOR ARTS STILL SEEKS HELP

The proposed Orange County High School of the Performing Arts, hailed as part of a growing trend toward special schools for aspiring artists and entertainers, is facing an uphill battle for private funds and support from other school districts.

Undaunted, organizers for the special school on the Los Alamitos High School campus say they will open as scheduled this fall, if on a less ambitious scale. A $194,700 state grant, they say, will fund a partial, tuition-free program for about 150 students.

Organizers say they still hope to raise an additional $300,000 to operate a “full-scale” arts school, complete with orchestra and other programs for about 220 students. They say the funds, which they hope to raise from Orange County businesses and community organizations, are needed to pay salaries for additional teachers, among other costs.

But recruiting students from other school districts throughout the county may prove a bigger problem.

So far, only two of the county’s 28 school districts have officially indicated a willingness to allow their students to transfer to the Los Alamitos school, which some administrators say they view as a potential drain of both dollars and students from their own districts.

A performing arts high school elsewhere, these administrators argue, would deprive their schools of artistically talented students and also would divert much-needed state funds from the fiscally strapped districts.

“Too many of us are already hit by crucial drops in enrollment and funding. The idea of losing any more students and ADA (average daily attendance funds paid by the state per student) is the last thing we want to think about,” said one school district administrator strongly critical of the countywide plan who asked not to be identified. “We do not want any territorial battles.”

State ADA assistance amounts to about $3,000 for each student enrolled during the academic year. But, these administrators maintain, if any of their students leave to enroll as full-time participants in the performing arts school, those students’ ADA support would go to the Los Alamitos district.

Still, organizers for the Orange County Performing Arts High School, which won final approval from Los Alamitos Unified School District’s board of trustees on March 16, argue that their countywide arts project should not be judged--or rejected--prematurely.

“This is such an emerging concept, we feel a new set of criteria should be applied to it,” said Jean Cross, project coordinator for the district.

Despite the obstacles, Cross and other organizers are proceeding with plans to open the arts high school in the fall with at least 150 students, about 100 of whom would be recruited from school districts throughout Orange County and the Long Beach-Norwalk-Cerritos area.

The first student auditions are set for June 15-30 at Los Alamitos High School.

“Our aim is a countywide school to serve artistically talented students,” said Cross, who already has received more than 200 inquiries, mostly from students outside Los Alamitos. “We do not believe our project is a threat to anyone else. We see it as a partnership, not a competitor.”

The Los Alamitos project, the first such school planned in Orange County, is modeled after public arts institutions in Los Angeles, Fresno and Sacramento, all of which combine intensive instruction in fine arts with regular academic subjects.

New York City has long had a public high school devoted to training actors, dancers, musicians and artists. But the notion of a public high school solely for arts majors only recently has gained momentum in Southern California, propelled perhaps by the popularity of the film “Fame” and the popular television series of the same name.

After years of proposals that went nowhere, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts finally opened two years ago and remains the only such full-time public program there. A recipient of a $400,000 state grant this year, the tuition-free school based at Cal State Los Angeles serves 320 students from 41 Los Angeles County school districts.

A new, state-run California Summer School for the Arts, backed by a $350,000 state grant, will open this summer at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Names of 400 high school students selected for the four-week, all-arts program are to be announced later this month. (Tuition for the summer program is $750, which includes room and board.)

As in the case of the Los Angeles County project, the proposed Orange County High School of the Performing Arts would offer music, drama, dance, fine arts and video classes in the afternoons. In the mornings, a regular curriculum of math, English, science and other subjects will be taught.

“The underlying factor is that art is both a creative discipline in itself and yet another avenue through which to learn the traditional basics,” said Ralph Opacic, the newly named director of the Los Alamitos project. He said the school also will be open to students considered “dropout prone,” as well as to academic “high achievers.”

“This follows our belief that the arts field is both a creative discipline in itself and yet another avenue through which to teach the traditional basics. It is one way to reach students whose academic performance or interest has not been very high,” Opacic said.

The county arts high school will be housed on the Los Alamitos High School campus, where a 750-seat auditorium is being remodeled as the arts project’s main home. Transfer students will have to provide their own transportation to and from school.

Opacic, who is also the high school’s vocal music teacher, expects to direct a staff of more than 20 part-time specialists. He adds that the Los Alamitos Community Cablevision Co. is constructing a $86,000 television center for the school.

The Los Alamitos project, which won a $194,700 state grant this year, won state approval over a summer arts program proposal submitted by the Orange County Department of Education.

The county department had sought approval for a five-week, all-arts program at Fullerton College for 200 students and had requested a state grant of $138,500, which would have underwritten most costs of a tuition-free program, according to Marie Clement, the county Education Department’s arts coordinator.

The county proposal, which has not received funds from any other sources, remains on the shelf, Clement says.

Lynn Hartzler, an administrator in the state Department of Education’s program for specialized secondary schools, says the full-time arts high school proposed by Los Alamitos school officials ranked among the highest in terms of potential program impact and fund-raising prospects.

Another factor in the plan’s favor, says Los Alamitos coordinator Cross, is that the moderate-size unified district of seven schools already has a highly supportive program in the arts. Unlike some districts, she says, Los Alamitos has chosen not to cut its arts staff, which numbers 30 specialists in music and other fields.

About $100,000 of the state grant was to be used to renovate the campus theater, with the remainder to go toward teacher salaries and educational materials, according to organizers. Six arts teachers already have been “donated” on a part-time basis by the Los Alamitos district, and three video teachers have been donated part time by the North Orange County Regional Occupational Program.

Despite the state support and the apparent interest of students across the county, Cross says, the arts high school project has received “letters of support” from only three other districts: Irvine and Placentia in Orange County, and Norwalk-La Mirada just across the Los Angeles County border.

Administrators in those districts downplay the “attendance threat” issue as something that could either hurt their school districts or threaten the future of the Los Alamitos project.

“We’re not really concerned--at this time, at any rate,” said Jack Vaughn, district arts coordinator for the Irvine Unified School District. “We have one of the strongest programs of any district in the region. Frankly, we don’t feel we would lose any large numbers of students.”

Violet Bryant, assistant superintendent at Placentia Unified School District, said: “It’s such a new program, so we’re taking a wait-and-see attitude. Should the transfers reach a significant number, then, of course, we would have to re-evaluate that policy.”

While the Fullerton Union High School District is not an “official” backer, administrators there have expressed support for the arts high school. A key reason behind that informal support is that the Fullerton district has a 2-year-old, state-supported high school specializing in technology that is similar in format to the Los Alamitos project.

Called Troy Tech, the special technological school is housed at Troy High School and has 124 students--18 from outside the Fullerton district. The specialized subjects offered include math, engineering and computer sciences.

“The aim of these special schools is to provide a programming depth for certain students that is not available elsewhere. It’s one of the main reasons for allowing interdistrict transfers,” Fullerton Supt. Robert Martin said.

But the “attendance threat” issue remains a delicate one for specialized schools that seek students from throughout the county, according to virtually all administrators interviewed.

“I can understand the reluctance of many districts to send students to such programs,” Martin said. “So many are in such dire straits financially. And the ADA is the lifeblood for all of us.”

It was just that issue that led the county Department of Education to propose a summer-only plan at Fullerton College. County arts coordinator Clement says the program was purposely limited to summer school in order to meet objections of districts who feared losing the ADA support during the regular school year.

Vaughn, a past president of the Orange County Music Administrators’ Assn., says the association has urged that enrollment in the proposed Los Alamitos arts high school be limited to the Los Alamitos district.

Cross says the program sponsors hope to allay those fears when she and other Los Alamitos officials seek support in the next few months from more districts in Orange County and Long Beach.

One plan of attack is to recruit more part-time, rather than full-time students. Cross says that would allow students to take regular academic courses in their “home district” and commute to Los Alamitos for afternoon arts classes. “In this manner,” she said, “the home district would still retain ADA credit.”

Fund raising also would emphasize the “home district” concept. She says corporations, service clubs and other private donors interested in sponsoring such part-time arts students from other districts will be sought.