Beverly Hills Delays Permits for Students Not Living in District

The Beverly Hills Unified School District surprised the parents of about 100 students who live outside the district this week when it declared that it will wait until fall to renew permits allowing the students to attend Beverly Hills schools.

Parents usually know by June whether their applications for permits have been accepted. Board of Education President Fred Stern said the decision to delay approval of the year-to-year permits was made so school administrators can see what enrollment for the school year is and control overcrowding, particularly at the district’s four elementary schools.

“What’s happened is that class sizes have started to creep up in first, second and third grades,” Stern said. “It was creating a situation where we had to hire more teachers, and it was not economical.

Class Ratios

“We like to keep kindergarten through third-grade classes at a ratio of 20 to 22 children per teacher,” he said. The average ratio for the Los Angeles Unified School District in those grades is 29.5 pupils per teacher.

The Beverly Hills school District, considered one of the area’s best, allows children of parents who work in the city or for the school district to apply for a permit to allow their children to attend its schools. Children who attend day-care programs in the city can also apply for an out-of-district permit. The children must obtain releases from their home school districts allowing them to attend other schools.

School district employees and their children are not affected by the change in the approval process, said Walt Puffer, assistant superintendent for personnel and pupil personnel services.

Pat Wiley, whose son, Stewart, attended kindergarten at El Rodeo School on an out-of-district permit, called the new policy “a slap in the face.”

“Sure, I’m upset,” said Wiley, an X-ray technician who works in Beverly Hills. “I work five minutes from there. (Stewart) likes the school. Now he’s going to be uprooted.”

Valerie Mitchell, the mother of two out-of-district students at El Rodeo, said she was upset that the district waited until Tuesday before telling her about the new policy.

Last Day of School

“We weren’t notified until the last day of school,” said Mitchell, whose children were allowed into the district because they attend an after-school child-care program in the area. “Had we been notified, we would have had a chance to make other arrangements. We might have had a chance to visit our (local) school; we might have had a chance to apply for magnet schools.”

Supt. Robert L. French said the decision to delay approval of the permits was made in October. But board President Stern said the decision was made “about four months ago.” Assistant Supt. Puffer said the decision was made within the last two months after the Los Angeles school district failed to deliver its half of the permits--the out-of-district releases--at the usual time.

Stern called the slow notification to parents “an oversight.”

Not Angry

Mary Ann Moody, a Malibu resident who works in Beverly Hills and whose son attends El Rodeo, said she had not received notification of the new policy, but was not angry at the school district.

“I don’t live in the district,” she said. “It is their district and if they can’t make room, they have the right, legally and morally, to (delay approval or deny permits).

“It’s a very touchy subject.” But “the issue is that I do not live in the school district, and I do not pay the taxes they pay.”

Moody said the problem is the disparity between school systems in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica and the school system in Los Angeles, which is not as highly regarded.

“School systems should all be the same,” she said. “That’s a big problem in this country.”