Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Teachers Submit Plan for Charter School : Education: If request is granted, Highland High would be freed from state guidelines. Reforms would be instituted.

With the goal of developing “self-motivated, competent, lifelong learners,” a group of teachers submitted a proposal Wednesday night to Antelope Valley Union High School District trustees to reinvent the educational system at a district school.

The teachers hope to have Highland High School designated a charter school--the first such designation in the Antelope Valley.

Charter schools, which must be approved by the state Board of Education, are released from the dictates of the voluminous state Education Code.

“The ultimate goal is to restructure our school in an acceptable, results-oriented way to better serve students in the 21st Century,” said Glen Horst, head of the committee and a teacher at Highland High.

Committee member and teacher Joe Acciani added: “(It’s) to better serve all students. We aren’t serving all students now.”

Senate Bill 1448, which took effect Jan. 1, allows the creation of 100 charter schools in California, an idea that stems from a decade-long effort to reform education.

The state Board of Education has already approved 39 charter schools, which are valid for five years and may be extended. Two charter requests as well as three districtwide charter applications, which would count as seven charters, are pending.

If the request is granted, Highland High School would be the first school in the north Los Angeles County region to attain charter status. A group of teachers and parents has been working on the proposal for about eight months. The committee had hoped to submit it to the board of trustees in May but agreed, at the trustees’ suggestion, to wait until the district had adopted its budget.

District trustees reluctantly acknowledged receipt of the charter proposal Wednesday night with at least two members saying there were too many unanswered questions and that the proposal should not be submitted until after the November elections. Three of five board seats are available with just one incumbent seeking reelection.

Submission of the charter proposal sets in motion a timeline that requires a public hearing to be held in 30 days and a decision from the trustees in 60 days. The hearing is tentatively slated for Nov. 3.

Trustee Wilda Andrejcik said she generally supports the charter school proposal but remains concerned about its impact on the finances of the district, which is still suffering from a $14-million budget deficit discovered more than a year ago.

The proposal, she said, has already brought benefits since teachers have come together to improve the curriculum.

“It’s teamwork you’ve never seen before,” she said. “I do see new ideas evolving that are improving education.”