Pacoima School Details Charter Plan for Board : Education: Vaughn Street officials say that increased independence will improve student achievement. But some employees fear the change would weaken their union representation.

Vaughn Street School officials Monday formally presented their charter school proposal to the Los Angeles Board of Education, describing a successful campus with smaller classes and local authority.

But the plan drew fire from some employees who said the petition weakens their right to union representation.

At a special public hearing required by the state charter school law, officials and parents told the seven-member board that the move to become independent of the Los Angeles Unified School District is an important step in the Pacoima elementary school’s quest to improve student achievement.

“It will test a very important hypothesis,” Principal Yvonne Chan told an audience that included more than 50 Vaughn Street staff members and parents. “Increased flexibility and increased accountability will result in increased learning.”

The proposal, approved by the school faculty and submitted to district officials last month, would transfer power to make virtually every decision--on issues from curriculum to cafeteria food--from the central bureaucracy to the school itself.

A state law that went into effect this year allows 100 schools in California to be granted such independent status.

The question of who should represent employees at Vaughn Street School remains, however, one of the few stumbling blocks for the school’s proposal. Currently, employees at the Vaughn Street school are represented by five bargaining units.

The school’s 40-page charter establishes United Teachers-Los Angeles, which represents all teachers in the district, as the sole organization responsible for the school’s 100 employees. That proviso--which became a point of controversy during the weeks spent writing the petition--drew more criticism Monday from bargaining units that accused the charter’s backers of usurping their authority.

“We will not stand for it,” said Norma Herrera of Local 99, which represents Vaughn Street’s 47 teacher’s aides. “All we want is to retain the bargaining representatives of our choice.”

School officials responded by saying UTLA’s power at Vaughn Street would be considerably scaled back. According to the petition, the union would serve only in a “non-combative” role in mediating internal disputes and providing legal counsel.

But Nicholas De La Cruz, an aide at the school, predicted UTLA would serve instructors first, at the expense of other school employees.

“It’s a teachers union, and we’re not teachers,” he said. “We’re not going to be respected by the teachers or the union.”

Board members also questioned the provision. President Leticia Quezada, whose district includes Vaughn Street, said she would meet with representatives from bargaining units at the school to help resolve the dispute.

The board voted to continue Monday’s hearing to allow public comment. Under the charter school law, passed by the state Legislature last fall, the board has 60 days from the time of the charter’s submission to gauge community support and decide whether to approve the proposal.

Schools throughout the state can receive the charter designation on a first-come, first-served basis after their local school boards approve the petitions. Nine schools have been granted charter status so far, nearly all of them in Northern California.