Charter School, District Caught in Stalemate Over Funds

Los Angeles Unified School District officials and representatives of Fenton Avenue Elementary School were unable to agree Friday on an important funding issue that continues to burden the charter school movement.

At the conclusion of a meeting called to review fiscal and legal issues at the San Fernando Valley’s second charter school, district officials vowed to seek a ruling from the county Board of Education on the funding controversy, which they hope will resolve the matter once and for all.

At issue is the amount of per-pupil funding the district will pay to charter schools--the same issue that administrators of Vaughn Next Century Learning Center and district officials have wrangled with since the school became the first to break away from the district last year.

State legislation approved in 1992 allows schools to become independent of most district control if parents, teachers and administrators vote to set up a charter school. But state funding payments still go directly to the district, which is supposed to pass on the money to the charter schools.

Charter school administrators contend the matter was resolved by the state superintendent of public instruction in a letter to the district dated Sept. 21, directing that Vaughn should receive $3,111 per pupil from the district, unless Vaughn administrators agreed otherwise. But district officials, who have said they will pay the schools about $2,900 per student, argue that the sum remains open to interpretation.

Richard Mason, special counsel to the superintendent of the district, said the charter legislation does not take into account the nature of a unified school district, which contains more expensive high schools along with less expensive grade schools.

“The whole dispute relates to how the charter legislation should be fairly implemented when the pattern of spending is differentiated between high school, middle school and elementary school,” Mason said.

Also at issue, he said, is a consent decree in an unrelated lawsuit, which requires equalization of per-pupil expenditures throughout the district. The lawsuit, which was settled last year, calls for elementary schools funding to be equalized in four years at about $2,800 per student.

Fenton Principal Joseph Lucente said the matter was already resolved by the state superintendent and needs no clarification from the county Board of Education. While frustrated by the stalemate, school representatives said they still plan to launch the charter school in January.

“We are 75 days away from starting day,” said teacher Jeanette McKinney. “We are going to go ahead with it. We’ve put too much of our blood and guts into it.”