Fenton School Teachers Vote for Independence From District

Teachers at Fenton Avenue Elementary School in Lake View Terrace voted overwhelmingly on Friday to sever its ties to the Los Angeles Unified School District and become one of the troubled bureaucracy’s 10 independently run “charter” schools.

Thirty-eight of the school’s 45 teachers voted in favor of the proposal, easily clearing a state requirement that at least 50% of the faculty approve a charter petition, said Principal Joe Lucente.

The school’s plan for local control still needs approval from the Board of Education, which received Fenton Avenue’s charter petition Friday afternoon. The board now has 30 days to schedule a public hearing on the proposal and another 60 working days to reach a decision.

If the school wins charter status, Lucente said, one of the top priorities would be to reduce class size from the current average of 29.5 students per teacher to 25 and eventually 20.

Noting that the school has a “long shopping list” of changes it hopes to make, Lucente said the staff decided to seek autonomy “because of the constant turmoil that we live with in this school district and this state . . . and the possibility to gain control and effect change ourselves.”

Although the school would still receive its funding through the district, charter status would give administrators and teachers control over spending, staffing and curriculum, as well as free them from thousands of pages of state education regulations.

Under a state law that took effect Jan. 1, 100 schools throughout the state will be allowed to break away from their districts by next January, with no more than 10 charter schools in one district. The idea behind the new law is to observe how much innovation is stimulated if publicly funded schools become independent of the California Education Code.

Fenton Avenue is the second school in the San Fernando Valley to seek independence from the sprawling Los Angeles school district. On Thursday, the school board is expected to act on a similar proposal by Vaughn Street Elementary School in Pacoima.

Five other charter petitions have been submitted to the district so far from schools in West Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades and the central Los Angeles area.

At Fenton Avenue on Friday, parent and teacher representatives praised the vote.

Yvette King, a sixth-grade teacher, called the charter proposal a ray of hope for demoralized educators. She said enthusiasm grew as a committee of teachers and administrators worked on the school’s 60-page charter proposal, especially when they realized it could reduce class size.

“Teachers got to thinking, ‘Wow--if we can do this, what else can we do?’ ”

Tony Pena, a community representative at Fenton Avenue whose 6-year-old daughter attends the school, said the charter proposal includes plans to expand a continuing-education program for parents.

“I think it’s something that’s going to benefit not only our kids, but our parents and teachers,” Pena said.