Restructuring Approved for 12 L.A. Schools : Education: Council on shared decision-making praises their proposals for non-traditional management.

A key council on school-based management approved restructuring plans for 12 Los Angeles schools Thursday, praising them for proposals that go beyond what schools have traditionally done.

The ideas range from launching a peer-tutoring program at South Shores Visual and Performing Arts Magnet to adopting an individualized physical therapy program at Lokrantz Special Education Center, which serves developmentally disabled students.

The proposals approved by the council also address the special needs of minority students and those bused in from other geographical areas. And to attract parental involvement, some schools want to provide child-care services and transportation for meetings about school-based management.

The school-based management concept, aimed at turning over control of individual schools to parents, teachers and principals, was launched this year after many delays and acrimonious debates. In August, the first 27 schools received final approval to begin restructuring.

Proposals from nine schools were sent back for additional work Thursday by the Central Council for Shared-Decision Making/School-Based Management. A proposal from Irving Junior High School may be approved today. Plans approved by the council must still be acted on by the Board of Education and United Teachers-Los Angeles, which will hold a joint meeting on Nov. 29.

Council members said that in general, the latest proposals are more detailed and ambitious than the ones approved in August, in large part because the schools have had more time to draw up plans and have received more guidance from the school board.

“It’s like night and day,” said council member Ruth Valadez, a special education teacher from Albion Street School. “Obviously it’s a long, slow process, but we’ve seen real growth.”

The school board had voiced concern over whether enough would be done under the first proposals to help multicultural students, and whether schools had any way to measure individual achievement under the new plans. The proposals approved Thursday addressed both those issues.

Sierra Vista Elementary, for example, wants to expand its history curriculum to include more information about Mexico and Central America. Recognizing the needs of a growing Asian student body, the school also wants more class time devoted to Asian cultures, and it would like to buy Asian works of literature for its school library.

Westside Alternative School hopes to motivate student interest and attendance by starting an environmental studies program. Narbonne High School plans to establish a program for 50 students in the 10th grade who seem in danger of dropping out.

Several schools with kindergartens complained that state-approved textbooks are geared toward children ages 6 and up, while many of their students are as young as 4. They asked for permission to use state funds to buy textbooks for their youngest students.

The proposal from the Lokrantz Special Education Center drew praise from Valadez.

“Everything here is individualized for the student,” Valadez said. “They are bringing in a program to work with motor skills. This is going to work.”

But administrators cautioned that restructuring the approximately 650 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District will take years. The district hopes to approve about 70 proposals a year.

Nine of the 27 schools approved for restructuring in August are still awaiting waivers to operate outside of specific district rules, state Board of Education codes and labor contract provisions, said Joe Rao, administrative coordinator for school-based management.

Some of the proposals threaten longstanding district policies. Westwood Village Elementary, for example, wants to solicit grants and donations to help pay for teachers’ aides and a school psychologist. But a district rule prohibits schools from using donations to provide benefits that other schools cannot afford.

Board and teachers union leaders say they are committed to helping schools implement ideas that have been prohibited in the past.

“Teachers have been used to complying with district rules all their lives,” council member Day Higuchi said. “It’s going to take them a while to stretch their creative faculties and say, ‘Gee, we can do this for the kids.’ ”

Other schools whose restructuring plans were approved Thursday are Kittridge Avenue School, Monlux Elementary/Monlux Magnet School, Carson High School, Granada Hills High, Sepulveda Junior High School, Lawrence Junior High and Arroyo Seco Alternative Magnet.