‘Little Gem’ of a School : Education: Topanga Elementary, far removed from urban worries, is a focal point for the community, prized and supported by canyon residents.

On a remote campus in the western reaches of the Los Angeles Unified School District, students don’t have to worry about drive-by shootings or drug deals.

The greatest safety threats at Topanga Elementary School are posed by the wasps that buzz around the playground and the rattlesnakes that slither down from the hills.

Set almost smack-dab in the middle of Topanga Canyon, the campus is part of the mammoth school district but at times feels worlds apart. Noisy children play in a wilderness setting, sheltered from many urban ills; dedicated teachers stay late to talk to pupils, draw up lesson plans or spruce up bulletin boards; tireless parents volunteer to take youngsters on field trips, plan events and raise money for classroom aides, computers and library books.

In a time when education funding is at its leanest in years, when most schools must grapple with an increasing number of social problems, Topanga is considered by some to be a “little gem in the mountains”--the epitome of a community-based public school jealously prized and supported by local residents.

“The school is the . . . total focal point of that entire community,” said former Topanga principal Floyd Cottam. “There’s no church, there’s no club, there’s nothing that comes close to it.”

When playground equipment needs fixing, parents turn out at the ring of a telephone. When a class needs drivers to take children to a nearby museum, the parents get behind the wheel. When kindergartners need day care, the parents mobilize and create an enrichment program.

If Topanga has a flaw, some parents say, it is the school’s ethnic makeup. In a district where 87% of students are minority members, Topanga is the reverse: 87% of its 310 students are white. But the numbers are changing--albeit slowly--and school officials have instituted programs to expose students to children of other ethnicities and cultures.

To be sure, many campuses throughout the school district form the nuclei of their neighborhoods and boast cadres of involved parents and diligent teachers. But several district officials and teachers insist there is something special about Topanga--a quality many trace to the topography of the area and the personality of its inhabitants.

With a state park to the east, the San Fernando Valley to the north and Malibu to the south, the canyon itself is somewhat inaccessible. It is bisected by one main boulevard through its chaparral-covered hills, which shield the elementary school from vandalism and gang violence.

“It’s a very well-defined community,” Topanga parent Bob Garber said. “You’re surrounded by the mountains, and people know very clearly whether you’re in or out of that community.”

“People live in Topanga for a reason,” said Gabrielle Lamirand, president of the school booster club. “You don’t live here by accident. You don’t live here because there’s a company close by. They’ve moved here because they like the environment.”

The canyon remains a popular settlement for hippies from the 1960s who still question authority, eschew modernity and regard footwear with hostility. For years, a colorful peace symbol greeted incoming motorists. Although sharply escalating property values have recently made the area a viable alternative only for “yuppies” and “hippies who’ve made it,” as one parent put it, nearly half of the canyon’s 10,000 residents are between the ages of 35 and 55, according to census data.

Topangans actively strive to foster a sense of community, a close-knit network of people bound by common complaints over septic problems and by phone numbers that begin with the same three digits. Couple the small-town atmosphere with a highly educated citizenry--more than half the adults over 25 have at least a bachelor’s degree--and the result is a strong community that rallies around the only public school for miles.

“There’s a great emphasis on education in this community,” said first-grade teacher Nancy Palmer, who has taught for eight years at Topanga. “For many parents, education is the most important thing to them.”

“You have a lot of creative and bright parents who are concerned about their kids’ education,” Lamirand adds. “The parents here have no fear. They’re not afraid to go right down and march into the office and say, ‘We don’t like this--we want that,’ or ‘We love this.’ ”

Cottam, who led the school for three years before current principal Steven Friedman took the helm, credits parental support with expanding the school’s horizons.

“What we were able to do was have great vision,” he said. “You could dream . . . and you would know you could get people to support you in every possible way. There’s that element in every school, but at this school it was standard, and it had to do with the nature of the people who live in that area.”

In keeping with the bohemian character of the canyon, many Topanga parents are artists, musicians, writers or entrepreneurs whose at-home businesses and flexible schedules allow them to devote considerable time to helping out the school--including an unusually high proportion of fathers who do everything from build playground equipment to design shelters for shade on hot days.

Two campus parent organizations raise money to pay for everything from additional teachers’ aides--all 12 classrooms have them--to a part-time librarian to paper and pencils. Through well-supported fund-raising drives, nearly every class boasts a Macintosh computer and the one-room library has just acquired a more advanced computer system.

Last year, an offshoot of the booster club sprang into action when an eight-week winter break caused increasing anxiety among working parents. To meet urgent child-care needs, a group of parents spearheaded a daily enrichment program that kept youngsters off the streets and at the same time offered classes in drama, Japanese culture, computers and marine biology.

This year, plans are already afoot for a Topanga alumni association, with its kickoff picnic next week, and a campaign to enlist corporate sponsorship for supplementary classes in art, drama, music, science and physical education. The school already boasts a strong environmental component in its curriculum, bolstered by its natural surroundings.

The parents themselves remain modest but recognize that their efforts don’t often find mirror images elsewhere.

“I don’t think there’s anything magical about the people or the place that allows this only to happen here,” said Garber, who was instrumental in launching the “Starship Topanga” winter session program. “Unfortunately, it does happen at Topanga, and it doesn’t seem to be happening in a lot of other places.”

One factor, some parents and teachers say, may be the relative affluence of the area. Although school officials and others are quick to point out that students come from backgrounds spanning the economic spectrum--from very wealthy households to those below poverty level--census data show the median family income in Topanga Canyon to be close to $90,000, with 82% of families making $50,000 or more.

But many cite a strong sense of community as the prime motivator in their volunteer efforts.

“There’s a lot to be said for a community school, where you have a real stake in the school,” said Lelia Moskowitz, who has two children at Topanga.

However, she and other parents acknowledge that the school’s ethnic homogeneity reflects the makeup of canyon residents, 89% of whom are white.

The issue is sensitive among parents and school officials anxious to police publicity lest the school be cast in a negative light. Topanga has the highest proportion of white students among L.A. Unified’s 625 campuses, although several western San Fernando Valley elementary schools have more than 70% white students.

“The irony of it all is that if there were ever a place where ethnic diversity would be accepted, this is it,” said teacher Bonnie Wallace, who has lived in Topanga Canyon for 24 years.

Several parents agree.

“I don’t feel we’re insulated up here,” said Jenifer Sanders, whose daughter is in her final year at Topanga. “I feel like the community is open to any kind of influx of people, whether it be gay or black or anything. I don’t think anyone would feel uncomfortable moving into the community.”

“There’s a liberal mind-set here,” agreed Moskowitz. “I would like a more integrated school. I went to a school where I was the only white kid on the block for 16 years.”

Nevertheless, parent Vicky King, who is white and whose husband is black, said the issue is one that can trouble her.

“It’s the one reason why I’m uncomfortable sending my kids there,” King said. “The school is great, and I wouldn’t want to sacrifice my children’s education, but it concerns me.”

She and another mother of a biracial student say they wish Topanga was more diverse but acknowledge that the school has little control over its ethnic composition.

At the request of parents four years ago, former principal Cottam said, the district began busing in a handful of students from overcrowded schools, although a small boom in neighborhood children and the inaccessibility of the campus had worked against busing. Now, seven youngsters from the Canoga Park area are bused in to Topanga every morning, a number that may rise slightly in the coming weeks, according to school officials.

Last year, in an attempt to increase awareness among older students, Topanga began a sister-school program with O’Melveny School in San Fernando, which has a 90% Latino student body. Teachers set up pen pals and joint outings for the children to get acquainted with one another.

But several parents say they should also find ways to familiarize their youngsters with people of different ethnicities.

“I would like for my children to experience perhaps a more diversified environment than they do at Topanga, but there are other opportunities outside of the school that I can use to expose them to other cultures,” said Nancy Heimerl, who pulled her son out of a private school to attend Topanga. “And that’s my responsibility as a parent.”