Summer Program Not Just for Poor : Education: More than one-third of the students in the Harvard-Westlake sessions attend private schools.

A Times story Aug. 2 about a summer enrichment program at Harvard-Westlake School’s Bel-Air campus described the program, based on information provided by officials at the private school, as one intended for underprivileged minority youths.

In response to questions raised since the article appeared, however, summer program director Peg Burich acknowledged that the school’s previous assertion that the program is a community service for “underprivileged minority children . . . from devastated areas of Los Angeles” is not fully accurate.

More than one-third of the children selected for the $25,000 summer program attend private schools, and only three of the 10 public schools represented are in areas touched by the recent riots. Some of the 44 participants, who attend free of charge, come from middle-class neighborhoods and are the sons and daughters of professionals and leaders in the African-American community.

Burich, who in an earlier interview said that only “families who wouldn’t normally be able to afford any type of summer program” were eligible, said last week that “maybe a couple don’t fit (that description), but most of them do. . . . Well, maybe a quarter of them would not fit. But that’s off the top of my head. I don’t know what summer school programs cost.”

She said families were not asked to supply financial information on their applications for the middle school. “We trusted the schools and parents to nominate only those who qualify,” Burich said.

She said parents and principals should have read the printed information attached to the program application, which stated that the summer session was intended for “students whose families ordinarily would not be able to afford a summer school program.”

Among the parents complaining about the school’s characterization of the program was Johnnie Joshua, mother of a 10-year-old participating in the program. “Everyone we know of (in the program) comes from an affluent African-American home.” She said the parents include a chemist, an attorney, a school psychologist and an executive for the United Negro College Fund. Joshua herself is administrative assistant to a Los Angeles Times executive; her husband is department manager for an accounting firm. The family lives in Windsor Hills.

A picture of Joshua’s son accompanied The Times’ article.