Schools Woo Offspring of Foreign Scientists : Education: La Jolla Country Day makes a particularly strong pitch for accommodating fusion program’s children.

In a major effort to calm fears that education in San Diego would be a risk for the children of foreign scientists, local nuclear energy officials guided their counterparts from Western Europe, the Soviet Union and Japan through a couple of stellar public and private schools Wednesday.

About a dozen high-ranking foreign officials heard presentations from the principal of University City High School--among the top two or three public high schools in San Diego--and from the headmaster and staff of the La Jolla Country Day School.

Both schools are close to UC San Diego and the Torrey Mesa Science Park, where a major part of the new International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor program will be situated.

La Jolla Country Day in particular made a strong pitch to become the school of choice for the majority of children whose parents will be among the 85 or more scientists from across America, Europe and Asia who will begin arriving here later this year to work on the unprecedented cooperative project to develop fusion for practical use.

The well-respected private school plans to offer a special high-school curriculum originally developed in Geneva, Switzerland, for children studying abroad to ensure that they receive instruction in foreign languages and interdisciplinary subjects necessary for admission to respected European and Asian universities.

Country Day Headmaster John C. Littleford also promised to run classes after its normal academic day in French, German, Japanese and Russian languages and literatures in order that the foreign students maintain their native fluency and culture and not be behind their peers when they return to their native country.

And, to soften the stiff reality of a $7,700 annual tuition, Littleford pledged that any child needing financial assistance will receive help. He later remarked that he expected all of the Soviet dependents to need substantial aid if they choose the school for their children.

The school had worked on its presentation for more than a year after being contacted by officials from UCSD, General Atomics, Science Applications International and General Dynamics, the core group responsible for luring the fusion program to San Diego. The goal was to approximate the curricula of private schools in Europe and Japan that have long existed for the offspring of expatriates.

Local officials had openly expressed concern that their foreign counterparts would hesitate to locate in the United States because of the image of American public schools, with some lamenting what they believe is the sorry state of San Diego city education.

UCSD Chancellor Richard Atkinson, at a press conference Wednesday announcing the location of a major fusion program component here, said that “the reports I received that are most distressing to me were that people were questioning the educational system.”

“It is an incredible embarrassment when Germany, France and Japan are saying that, if (they) locate in San Diego, (their) children who will be involved in kindergarten through 12th grade (will receive) an education that will not allow them to compete when they return.”

The foreign officials touring the schools were too diplomatic on Wednesday to say anything negative or give public airing to any misgivings about overall American education, and some even said they were surprised at any controversy over whether San Diego city schools--public or private--could instruct their children.

Their concerns instead focused on more nitty-gritty questions, such as what provisions the schools could make for students without fluent English. The answers will be disseminated in their own countries among the many scientists eligible to come to San Diego with the fusion project.

University City High Principal Mary McNaughton and parent volunteer Mary Croft--whose husband is a UCSD administrator--emphasized the school’s curricular ties to the university, its multicultural and international student body represented by more than 25 countries and its handsome location on a bluff just west of Miramar.

As they carted around brochures full of statistics and descriptions of the high school and the San Diego district, the foreign officials seemed particularly interested in the graphic arts and English-as-a-foreign-language offerings, as well as by the large number of colleges and universities that University City High graduates attend.

Many were aware that, despite the customized education offered by Country Day, some of the foreign students will end up in public schools because they are free.

McNaughton had felt some apprehension when asked this month to represent the entire San Diego district, the nation’s eighth largest urban system, and some local officials privately criticized Supt. Tom Payzant for not taking an active role in working with the ITER presentation.

Although Payzant’s public affairs aide, Phil George, said this week that the superintendent had not been aware of contacts made to his office, the ITER officials said they were shunted to low-level administrators when they first made their pitch last year.

The district efforts paled before the long-planned efforts by Country Day’s Littleford who, in being joined by almost a dozen of his top staff, clearly impressed most of the foreign officials.

Littleford stressed that the parents of one-third of the school’s more than 850 students speak a primary language other than English at home.

“We’re very interested in international education here,” he said, noting his own background in East Asian languages. Littleford also touted the small class sizes at the school, its ability to offer customized language and tutoring, and its willingness to bring the scientists and their families into the school as adjunct teachers in their native languages.

Littleford said he has little doubt that the children of ITER scientists will qualify for Country Day admission, “given that the genetic pool is pretty strong.”

Soviet officials Boris Nikipelov and Nikolai Cheverev asked Country Day admissions director Judy Haidinger how their children could be accepted to the school. Haidinger explained that there would be both tests and interviews, and reassured the officials that Country Day will spare no expense to make sure that the transition to English-language classes is handled well.

Masagi Yashikawa, a Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute official who lived in San Diego for eight years while at General Atomics, said he personally would select Country Day. His own daughter attended The Bishop’s School, another prestigious private school in La Jolla.

“If I could afford it, I would do it,” Yashikawa said. “I personally feel much better with this school. University City is good but sort of average; this is special.”

But he conceded that the $7,700 tuition will deter many scientists, especially since housing in the UCSD area will cost at least $1,000 a month out of pocket, even after any subsidies from the fusion group.

Another Japanese official, Atomic Energy Bureau Director General Hiroto Ishida, cautioned against selling public schools short. Ishida said he sent his three children to public schools in Washington when he was posted to the Japanese Embassy.

He said they loved the experience. “So what if they were behind a little in math” after returning to Japan, he asked.

Asked whether an American public school education would prepare Japanese children for admission to Tokyo University (Todai), the nation’s most prestigious institution, Ishida noted that he is a Todai graduate.

“I don’t care if my children go to the University of Tokyo,” he said.