Quest for Right School Can Be Complex Odyssey : Education: Religion and academic extras are cited by parents who choose private institutions for youngsters.

On a chilly evening in November, dozens of mothers and fathers crowded into the Viewpoint School’s Prinn Library for their initial look at the first-rate private campus along Mulholland Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Many intently took notes as school officials talked about admissions policies, curricula, field trips and community service projects. The parents’ questions--about how reading is taught, how students are evaluated and why French instead of Spanish is offered in the early grades--bespoke the efforts they were putting into the search for the right school.

This was Parent Information Night, a ritual at many Los Angeles private schools. It is an important leg of the complex, sometimes soul-searching odyssey many families undertake as they weigh education options for their children.

Parents cite a variety of reasons for placing children in private schools. Some of the dozens of parents interviewed for this series said they opted for a private school because they wanted a religious education or a better academic program for a child with special needs. Some were drawn by academic extras and one-on-one attention that the top schools can afford.

Few seem motivated by racism; in fact, many private schools--especially Catholic ones--have substantial minority enrollments. An increasing number of parents are concerned that the public education system many of them grew up in can no longer do the job. They are troubled by funding shortages that have led to bigger classes and cuts in art, music and other programs; low test scores, weak discipline, drugs and violence, and the educational impact of increasing numbers of poor or immigrant children who are learning English.

So they opt for a private education, a decision that for many has meant wrestling with long-held beliefs about the value of a public education--and juggling family finances to pay for the often steep private school tuitions.

For Pat Bone, the answer was obvious within a year after she and her family moved to Orange County from South Carolina in 1986.

“The first thing you notice here in the public schools is the lack of support programs,” said Bone, a Lake Forest mother of three who grew increasingly concerned about the education her two sons were getting in a gifted program at a Mission Viejo elementary school.

“I would visit their classes,” she said, “and I found myself wondering where the (physical education) teacher was, where the art teacher was and where the (foreign) language teacher was. It seemed like there was one teacher in a classroom who was expected to do everything.”

She also worried that her youngest, David, a second-grader in a first-and-second-grade combination class, was being shortchanged because the teacher had to concentrate on teaching the first-graders to read as well as to handle the longer school days.

The next year, she enrolled both boys in St. Margaret’s School, an independent parochial school with 800 pupils connected to St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church in San Juan Capistrano.

“I think they’re offering something special,” Bone said of St. Margaret’s, where David is now in the seventh grade.

But Bone, herself a product of New England private schools, does not knock all public schools. Her eldest, a daughter, graduated at the top of her class at El Toro High School in 1990 and is doing well at Dartmouth College. And her 16-year-old son, Jeff, chose to leave St. Margaret’s to go to El Toro High, the neighborhood public high school.

“The commuter aspect of (St. Margaret’s) is very difficult from a social point of view,” Bone said. “Jeff really wanted to be able to have someone to shoot hoops with after school.”

A poll commissioned last year by the National Assn. of Independent Schools reflected a nearly even split over what type of schools Americans believe are best for their children. The survey found that 45% of Americans polled said they would send their children to public schools, even if private school cost was not a factor. Those favoring public schools said they believed that they provide a better or “real world” mix of students and a good quality education and produce well-rounded students.

About 33% favored independent schools, the selective, college preparatory-type schools represented by the organization that sponsored the poll. They cited better education, smaller classes and high-quality teachers. Another 18% said they would choose parochial schools for academics, religious influence, discipline and individual attention.

But 82% said they cannot afford independent schools. Tuitions and fees range from $5,400 to $12,000 nationwide, and about 18% of the students in NAIS member schools receive financial assistance.

Affordability is a major issue even for the less pricey schools. That is part of the reason major private school organizations are supporting--in concept, at least--President Bush’s call for voucher systems, which would give tax dollars to parents to spend at either public or private schools.

Many Southern California families interviewed for this series said paying private school tuition represented a substantial sacrifice. They take a second mortgage on the house, give up family vacations, stop eating in restaurants or dip into college funds.

Valina Hernandez, 29, a self-employed single mother, does without vacations, nice clothes and most entertainment so she can afford to send her son, Jemuel, 7, to Pegasus School for gifted children in Huntington Beach, where annual tuition ranges from $2,300 for the youngest preschool children to $5,300 for sixth- and seventh-graders.

“It’s very difficult,” said the Huntington Beach woman, who sends her only child to private school because she believes that there is nothing more important than a good education, something she thinks he cannot get in public school.

“We do without,” she said. “We don’t go anywhere, we don’t have vacations. . . . Last year, I almost took him out because of the financial burden.”

In the end, Jemuel stayed when he became one of the 12% of the school’s students who qualify for some financial aid, according to Pegasus founder and director Laura Hathaway.

Even the somewhat lower costs are a struggle, especially when Hernandez is between jobs, but she said it’s worth it because “my son is really happy at Pegasus. . . . He’s challenged there.”

Sharon Matlock of Huntington Beach, another single mother whose daughter, Jessica, 7, also attends Pegasus, said: “There are sacrifices in life that we adults have to make, and if we have to suffer and strive more to get good education for our children, then that’s what we have to do.”

Many parents said they never expected to be shopping for a private school. Among them are Westwood residents David Alpaugh and Lucy Blackmar, who had always assumed that they would send their daughter Jessie into the public system once she finished at University Elementary School, UCLA’s prestigious, semiprivate laboratory school.

But their concerns began to mount as they explored various public campuses.

“One entire (open house) program was devoted entirely to discipline and security questions. The focus did not seem to be on the academic environment,” said Alpaugh, an urban planner, “and we just couldn’t see our shy, quiet, very creative kid there.”

So after “a year of hell” and indecision, Jessie, 13, ended up at Marlborough, a 103-year-old girls school in Hancock Park where students wear uniforms and alumnae are often found at campus events.

“It’s working out reasonably well for her. At first there was a little surprise at the hours of homework every night, but she has adjusted,” Alpaugh said.

“She has found a new group of friends there and a very, very strong culture of educational success among the children that is reinforced by the school. It’s very achievement-oriented.”

With two younger children to think about, Alpaugh said the family may not be able to keep their daughter in a private school through the 12th grade.

“But I think she is being prepared to do well anywhere she goes. These are very important years . . . and if there is one place to spend money on private education, that place is junior high,” he said.

Marsha Olivier said she and her husband, Sylvain, chose the Village School in Pacific Palisades for its nurturing, neighborhood school ambience. But she said they nonetheless are concerned about having their two young daughters surrounded by wealthy classmates.

“I don’t believe our kids feel poor in any major ways, but they have made comments about being the only ones without a swimming pool,” she said. “That’s what I dislike about private schools.”

But another couple who initially worried about how their children would interact with wealthy youngsters were relieved to see how well everyone fits in at Palm Valley School, an independent college preparatory school in Riverside County. Jerry Poss, a parking control officer for the Palm Springs Police Department and his wife, Kelli, a bookkeeper, have their 8-year-old twins, Joshua and Elizabeth, in the school on scholarships. They were reassured to find that about half of the school’s students receive financial aid and that the required uniforms help downplay differences in family income. Moreover, he said, school officials are committed to helping all youngsters feel important and confident.

“This was one of the best decisions we’ve made as parents,” Jerry Poss said.

Many other families also are happy with their choices, most often citing the individual attention their children receive. A parent at the highly regarded Chadwick School on the Palos Verdes Peninsula appreciates that the home addresses and telephone numbers of faculty members are included in the student handbook because it makes his son feel “they are available for him at all times.” A parent of two students at the selective Brentwood School on Los Angeles’ Westside said her children have “really benefited from the sense of community there.”

Attorney Mary Westbrook of Newport Beach said she and her husband, Jim Percival, liked their public school district’s kindergarten program better than the one at Harbor Day, the independent private school in Corona del Mar they chose for their daughter, Kelly.

But they were concerned that there might not be room for their daughter later at the prestigious, popular private school, and they wanted a stable, small-school atmosphere that could be “like a second family.”

“Maybe if I weren’t working such long hours it wouldn’t be such a concern, but I feel that if Kelly has a problem or talent, people there will call me quicker,” said Westbrook. A few parents said they sometimes wonder whether they are overprotecting their children by sending them to idyllic campuses full of clean-cut, highly motivated students.

“The other night I was watching Tom Brokaw (on a television newscast) talking about AIDS education for 9-year-olds and I found myself wondering, ‘Are our kids in a bubble?’ ” said Melinda Pepper of Ojai, who sends her four children to Ojai Valley School, an independent boarding and day school spread over two rural campuses.

“I sometimes wonder what will happen when they get out into the real world. But they are learning so much, (including) how to work as a team,” Pepper said. “When I see the smiles on my children’s faces at the end of the day, I know we’ve done the right thing.”

Although some parents said they were attracted to a particular private school because it somehow reminded them of the public schools they had attended as children, the Esparza family of El Sereno chose the Pasadena Waldorf School because it did not.

Film producer Moctezuma Esparza said he and his wife, Esperanza Vasquez Esparza, felt they had suffered discrimination as students. They were attracted by the Waldorf School’s emphasis on helping children to appreciate each other’s cultures. They also liked the curricula and methods, based on the educational principles of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner.

Instruction stresses the connections among subjects, and children stay with the same teacher for several years. The children write their own textbooks, study several foreign languages and have classmates from a wide range of ethnic and economic backgrounds.

“We feel the school has provided our children with the richest possible experience,” said Moctezuma Esparza.

Recently, their 11-year-old daughter, Tonantzin, transferred to Holy Family, a Catholic elementary school in South Pasadena, because she felt her seven-student class at Waldorf was a little too small. To avoid a long commute to Waldorf’s high school campus in Northridge, the oldest of their four children, Tonatiuh, 13, attends South Pasadena High School.

“They had no trouble with the transition. They were both well-prepared,” Esparza said.

With meticulous research and careful attention to their children’s changing needs, Marc and Ellen Green of West Los Angeles feel they have been able to blend the best of both worlds and obtain solid educations for their two sons. Between them, the boys have attended Los Angeles Unified School District’s Westwood Elementary School and the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, a magnet program, as well as UCLA’s laboratory school. The private schools were Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, a respected independent school, and Loyola, a Los Angeles Catholic boys high school widely known for its strong academics.

“It is not easy to wend your way through the educational maze of Los Angeles and come out of it feeling your kids have gotten terrific attention and first-rate teachers, and we feel very lucky about that,” said Marc Green, a writer.

“But there really are more options out there than most parents realize. I feel you have to take the long view of these things,” Green said. “Your child may get a first-class education in an elite private school, but there is also something to be learned from the people sitting next to you in the classroom in a public school.

“I think parents who rue the fact they cannot be at a private school ought to realize they are giving their children something else.”

UCLA educational psychologist Esther Sinclair, who has led seminars on how to choose schools, said she has found that “people are becoming more and more anxious” about where to send their children.

“The supply of (high quality) private schools does not begin to meet the demand, and these schools are expensive, so most people are disenfranchised from the private school option. I try to get them to realize their children can get a very good education in public schools,” she said.

While exclusive independent schools on the East Coast are increasingly turning to marketing campaigns to ensure their futures, many top schools in Southern California must turn away qualified applicants.

Despite the demand, especially on the Westside, in the Pasadena area and in parts of the San Fernando Valley, few independent schools are started, largely because of the expense in obtaining facilities and building a faculty and curricula from scratch.

Easier to start are religious schools, which, through their church or synagogue, have a guiding organization and source of financial support in place.

Given the huge variety among private schools and the tough competition for seats at the top schools, some parents are hiring private education counselors to help them find a suitable campus. They believe the cost, which can go as high as $2,000, is not unreasonable when weighed against the financial investment represented by about 12 years of tuition or the emotional cost of choosing poorly.

“I tell parents I can’t guarantee a child’s getting in anywhere. What I can do is narrow the field,” said Teri Solochek, an independent educational consultant. “Everybody would love to have their child at Harvard-Westlake,” she added, referring to the highly selective, 1,500-student academic powerhouse that resulted from the recent merger of Westlake School for Girls in Holmby Hills and Harvard School for boys in North Hollywood.

“But that is not appropriate for every child,” Solochek said. “I’ve seen too many children who have suffered . . . everything from stress to low self-esteem, from being in the wrong educational environment.”

In California, as in most states, the responsibility for investigating the policies, affiliations or track records of private schools falls mainly to parents. California provides almost no regulation of the academic quality of private schools. Many schools voluntarily belong to such organizations as the Assn. of Christian Schools International or American Montessori Society, which set standards according to their philosophies and provide some oversight.

Increasing numbers are seeking accreditation from independent, regional agencies--in California, the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges. But some schools operate entirely outside the aegis of any agency, public or private.

While private school enrollments as a whole have not fluctuated much over the last decade, interest in them ebbs and flows with the currents in public education.

Local private schools were inundated with inquiries in 1978, when mandatory busing for desegregation was implemented in the Los Angeles public schools. District officials estimated that 46,000 students left because of busing, although some families returned after its end. Five new private schools--four in the San Fernando Valley and one on the Westside--were opened, and dozens of parents moved away or formed home tutorial groups.

The tutorial groups began fading even before the mandatory busing program was dismantled in 1981 and only two of the schools survived. Both of them--Chatsworth Hills Academy in the Valley and the Village School in Pacific Palisades--are thriving, as are many other area private schools, despite the recession that continues to grip the state.

Many private school officials say they are again seeing widespread interest in their campuses, and this makes them uncomfortable. Some Los Angeles schools are making strong efforts to increase the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of their students, and they are dismayed to be considered havens from the larger world.

“We are very sensitive to what is happening in the public schools. If they are weak, we get too many applicants. If they are strong, they are challenging us and pushing us and keeping us from getting complacent,” said Hunter M. Temple, Brentwood School’s headmaster.

Public school was not an acceptable route for Kimberly and Michael Kelly of Northridge.

“We always told ourselves we were not going to be (among) those people who send their children to private schools,” said Kimberly Kelly. “But we visited our neighborhood school, and it was a far cry from what my husband and I remembered of the public schools we went to.

“So many things had been eliminated, and the kindergarten teacher seemed overwhelmed with having so many kids in her classroom,” said Kelly, who feared their daughter “would get swallowed up there.”

So she went back to work full time to send 6-year-old Megan to Chatsworth Hills Academy, which charges an annual tuition of $5,000.

Like many others, Kelly has mixed feelings about her choice.

“What we’re happy with here is the class size--18 in her first grade--the teachers and the music, art and Spanish, all the things that are getting cut in public schools. And I didn’t want a school with a high-pressure academic program,” she said.

But she dislikes having to put in time “on one fund-raiser after another” and is uncomfortable with the amount of clout individual parents gain from an administration she feels is sometimes too eager to try to please everyone.

Times staff writer Kristina Lindgren in Orange County contributed to this article.