SAN FERNANDO : Educator to Join in Nationwide Summit

Dr. Yvonne Chan, principal of Vaughn Street School in San Fernando and who was won statewide recognition for making it a model of innovation, was named Tuesday to take part in a nationwide education reform summit.

“This really recognizes what is happening at our school,” the 42-year-old educator said. “We are not just tinkering around the edges, but making real, systemic changes.”

Chan, who won a California Educator Award in 1991, is one of 80 selected to attend the “China Breakers” conference. The summit, to be held in June in Leesburg, Va., will feature examples of successful school reform programs and attempt to develop a model school for the 21st Century.

Since arriving at the elementary school three years ago, Chan has helped transform it from one of the acknowledged worst in the Los Angeles Unified School District to one hailed for its efforts in bringing social as well as improved academic services to its students, who are mostly Latino and poor. She has also spearheaded a drive to win charter status for the school--a move that would make it a largely self-regulating body, free from district control.

The “China Breakers” conference is sponsored by the RJR Nabisco Foundation’s Next Century Schools program, the country’s largest business-education partnership with public schools.