Public School Woes Prompt Parents to Consider Options : Education: Private and parochial school applications are increasing as a looming teachers strike, overcrowding and gang problems have many concerned.

Faced with the prospect of losing weeks or even months of education, many parents with children in Los Angeles public schools are making last-ditch attempts to get them into private schools. Classes in the Los Angeles Unified School District are suspended for an eight-week winter break and a teachers’ strike looms when school resumes in mid-February.

Private school applications are at an all-time high despite the struggling economy, the $10,000-plus price tag at most tony Westside schools and the odds against being accepted. Some schools report seven applications for every opening, as parents appear increasingly desperate to provide their children with a solid education unmarred by overcrowded classes, demoralized teachers and gang problems.

Even some of public education’s staunchest supporters say they are having second thoughts as reports of violence and falling test scores in city schools mount, and some parents are hedging their bets by quietly applying to private schools “just in case.”

In the wake of Thursday’s fatal shooting of a teen-ager during English class at Fairfax High, a somber Mark Slavkin, the Westside’s representative on the school board, said he now questions “whether Los Angeles can maintain critical mass”--enough concerned people willing to stay and work to solve the public school system’s problems and to ensure the city’s survival.

He cautioned that parents now jumping ship by sending their children to private schools they perceive as safer or academically stronger still have an obligation to address the public system’s problems.

“No matter how far you go,” Slavkin said, “the social ills are going to eat you up eventually. The riots are my No. 1 example of that.”

An informal survey of more than a dozen private Westside schools found they are deluged with applications and inquiries about openings, even though the deadlines for next year are long past at most.

* At P.S. 1 in Santa Monica, Director Joel Pelcyger is sifting through 150 applications for 20 openings. “We haven’t seen a sudden surge; we’ve had seven times as many applications as openings for a couple of years now,” he said.

* The Windward School in Mar Vista expects about 400 applications by its Feb. 1 deadline for an anticipated 70 slots, according to admissions director Sharon Pearline. “There’s been a dramatic increase in the last three years,” she said.

* After “a tremendous surge” in applications following its merger two years ago, the Harvard-Westlake School (with campuses in Holmby Hills and Studio City) reports a steady increase. Admissions director Elizabeth Gregory said the school now receives five applications for every place; five years ago the ratio was 3 to 1 for girls and 4 to 1 for boys.

* Crossroads School in Santa Monica received about 1,500 inquiries and more than 900 formal applications this year, although there will be openings for fewer than 200 students. The school, furthermore, gives preference to siblings of students already attending the school, headmaster Paul Cummins said. Parents of prospective kindergartners flooded the office with 180 applications in a single day, and the school had to reject later applicants.

Cummins says many parents he interviews begin by saying, “I really believe in public education but . . .” Cummins says he does too.

“As a father I’ve done the same thing,” he said. “I believe in public education and I’m working out there to try to make it better. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to put our two daughters in it. So I’m a Clinton hypocrite myself,” he said, referring to the new President’s decision to send his daughter to a private school in Washington while voicing support for public education.

Acknowledging the negative symbolism of such a decision, he asked, “Are you going to sacrifice your own child for a principle you believe in?”

Even smaller, lesser-known schools say applications are flowing in.

At 150-student Calmont School in Topanga Canyon, director Linda Creager said dissatisfaction with the public system seems to outweigh any shortage of discretionary income in today’s troubled economy. “The economy is not affecting it (number of applicants). Parents are truly concerned and willing to do anything. “

Parochial schools, too, report a surge in applications.

“It is at an all-time high,” said Sister Patricia McGahn, principal of Corpus Christi Catholic School in Pacific Palisades. “I think it’s because of the society, its lack of values and the fact that we are seen as a safer place.”

She said inquiries increased after public school teachers threatened to strike, although the small school gives preference to its parishioners and has few openings.