7 Schools Let Parents Choose Campus : Sylmar: Program, first in the Los Angeles district, promotes competition by erasing attendance boundaries.

One school trumpets its afternoon clubs that teach kids how to work with computers, speak Spanish or act. Another boasts of an active parent volunteer corps involved in nearly every aspect of campus life. A third promises an “attractive, well-kept campus” with a “view of the surrounding mountains.”

From their blurbs in a simple-looking brochure, the schools sound like private institutions jockeying for the attention--and pocketbooks--of parents in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

But in actuality, they belong to a group of seven public elementary schools in Sylmar that have embarked on an experiment to foster healthy competition among campuses and to grant parents a measure of control over which schools their youngsters attend.

The elementary schools involved are Dyer Street, El Dorado Avenue, Gridley Street, Harding Street, Herrick Avenue, Hubbard Street and Sylmar.

For the past two months, these seven campuses have erased the rigid attendance boundaries separating them and allowed children to enroll at the schools their families choose.

The fledgling program is the first of its kind within the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District, which, like public school systems across the country, has long assigned students to campuses on the basis of where they live.

“In the past, you went to the school in your attendance area. Now we have some ways of looking at that and doing things differently,” said Joyce Peyton, director of the district office that first broached the Sylmar choice plan.

The Sylmar program did not require school board approval. Three other neighborhoods were singled out by Peyton’s office as possible candidates for a transfer program but only one, in South Central Los Angeles, has so far expressed interest in such an effort.

The experiment comes at a time when the concept of school choice is sweeping toward the center of political discourse in California.

Already, debate is ringing over the controversial voucher initiative on the November ballot, which would establish public school choice but also give tax-funded subsidies to parents whose children attend private or parochial schools.

Last month, two new laws were passed by the state Legislature to blunt the initiative’s appeal by easing restrictions on student transfers between school districts or between campuses within a district.

The laws go into effect Jan. 1, but no transfers can occur until the 1995-96 school year.

The Sylmar options program was launched in May after a series of meetings between parents, teachers and administrators.

To assuage fears that mass migrations might upset delicate ethnic or staffing balances, the seven schools--which together serve 6,250 youngsters--were allowed to cap the number of children coming or going. The numbers range from 10 to 50 students per school, for a total of 185 slots spread among the campuses.

So far, the traffic of students between schools has been light. Only about three dozen students have opted to switch, accounting for about 20% of the available transfer slots.

However, the number may rise over the next few weeks, as the only two schools in the group not on year-round schedules get ready to open for the fall semester.

Some parents have expressed interest in returning their children to a traditional September to June calendar.

Officials say the current low number of transfers is not surprising given the timing of the program, which was hurriedly put into place mid-June, just a week or two before the end of the school year.

“It’s not well-known,” said Shirley Gold, assistant principal of Dyer Street School, which made 30 spaces available to new students. “But as more and more people do it, the word will spread, and parents will take advantage of it.”

The low participation rate also reflects a national trend where few parents actually exercise the right to transfer their children in states and school districts that allow it. Last year, a national survey of public school parents found that 70% would not send their youngsters to another campus even when given the option.

Still, parents and educators call the Sylmar program a worthy step toward returning control of public schools to the public.

Campus officials credit the program with forcing them to take better stock of their schools and showing them where they might have to improve to keep their “customers”--parents and students--happy.

“It makes everyone sit up and take notice, from the office staff to the custodian,” said Dolores Palacio, principal of El Dorado School. “Suddenly we’re in the mode of marketing our school.”

Indeed, at times the bilingual brochure sent to parents from the seven schools sounds like a real estate ad.

One blurb read: “Harding Street School, located in a quiet, single family dwelling area of Sylmar, has the philosophy that all students that pass through its doors can learn.”

Hubbard Street School touts its “experienced, caring staff dedicated to student success” and its status as a predominantly minority school, which enables it to apply for extra funds and “allows for lower enrollment in classrooms!” As for Gridley Street School, it “provides a safe and nurturing place of learning where the ‘child comes first.’ ”

Said Tim Bower, a coordinator at El Dorado, who helped write his school’s promotional blurb: “It’s almost like we have to hire a PR consultant or marketing firm.”

Backers of the concept of public school choice--including President Clinton--believe that such competition is healthy, forcing schools to improve if they want to flourish, as in the business world.

Other groups, such as the union United Teachers-Los Angeles, question whether marketplace ideals suit public education.

Nonetheless, Day Higuchi, a vice president of UTLA, said the Sylmar program is noteworthy if it does indeed offer students real educational options, such as a choice between different curricula or teaching methods at the various schools.

“Choice should be meaningful,” he said. “It shouldn’t be based on ‘It’s on my way to work,’ or the football team or something like that.”

For John Miatech, the new policy let him enroll his daughter at a campus where he felt she could better learn.

At Harding Street School, a team of teachers have banded together to create a program weighted heavily toward the sciences, with English, math and other subjects taught with a nod toward science.

“Our daughter is a more kinetic type of learner, so we like that program,” Miatech said.

He and his wife were also attracted by the well-maintained campus and ethnic diversity of the school whose enrollment is 64% minority.

Miatech said his daughter--who is part Filipino, black and white--had trouble making friends at her old school, where many of the students did not speak English.

Postal worker Christine Vela and daughter Renee were the first in line to switch to El Dorado when the option was announced.

Although Renee had attended the school from kindergarten through fourth grade, district boundaries mandated that she transfer to Dyer Street last year after her family moved to another part of Sylmar.

Now she’s back at El Dorado, reunited with friends and teachers.

“If she’s happier, she’ll do better. It’s farther, but it’s worth it,” said Vela, who drives her daughter a few minutes more each day to reach El Dorado.

“I’m still in the Sylmar area--it’s not like I moved somewhere else. I think it’s great.”

The program requires no applications or permits to switch, as is the case when students wish to attend special magnet schools or campuses close to a parent’s workplace.

But officials concede the Sylmar program remains rather limited, partly because of the caps put on the number of students who can transfer. Moreover, parents are still accustomed to sending their children where the district assigns them.

“When we implement it everywhere and it becomes a habit of mind that parents have to make a choice, then we’ll know we’ll have arrived at a real empowerment of parents,” said Assistant Supt. Sara A. Coughlin, who oversees the Valley’s elementary schools. “But it’s a long road from here to there . . . It’s going to take awhile, and that’s the schools’ responsibility to reach out.”