Fenton School’s Quest to Move Ahead

A sense of discouragement comes easily these days to those who work in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It can even be found among the schools that have volunteered for the LEARN program, the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now effort that will allow participants to manage their own budgets and classrooms. Not one senior high school applied, and some schools that did volunteer are reconsidering their decision.

You might have expected the same vacillation from Fenton Avenue Elementary, a Lake View Terrace school that has been shadowed by misfortune for much of its 33-year history. Instead, it appears that the overwhelming needs of Fenton students have convinced teachers, staff and parents that their efforts must be redoubled.

On average, more than nine of every 10 Fenton students are poor enough to qualify for free lunches. Some 60% of the school, which is three-quarters Latino and about one-fourth African-American, has only limited English speaking skills. Fenton has a staggering transiency rate, meaning that nearly 60% of the students who begin classes there in the fall are no longer at Fenton by the end of the school year. That’s because their families have been evicted or have moved from place to place in search of employment. Fenton pupils generally rank on the bottom rung of academic achievement. Over the years, Fenton has also suffered rampant vandalism. One principal quit after receiving death threats. A successor transferred after only one year.

Combine that with the problems of working through the LAUSD bureaucracy, with years-long delays for a routine paint job, roof repairs and continuing delays to repair a hazardous playground.

Rather than coast through hard times, however, the Fenton school community has decided to go beyond the LEARN program by becoming the second Valley school to apply for charter status. Success here would allow the school to develop its own educational plans, free from state and local education regulations. Last week, the Los Angeles Board of Education allowed Vaughan Street Elementary in Pacoima to become the first Valley school to obtain such status. “We can do a better job,” says Fenton Principal Joe Lucente, “if we have autonomy and control.”

Lucente says the school wants its independence in order to pursue team teaching techniques. He adds that reading, writing and something less familiar--portfolios--would receive a stronger emphasis throughout the curriculum. Portfolios are used to assess a student’s cumulative efforts, in the same way that an artist assembles a portfolio of work. Lucente also feels that the school can reduce class sizes and hire more teachers through more efficient use of its own budget.

Hard times need not stop any school from pursuing excellence. Fenton’s story is a case in point.