Board Hears Dispute Between Charter Schools, District : Education: Vaughn Street and Fenton Avenue campuses want about $3,100 per student instead of the $2,800 to $2,900 they have been offered.

The fractious funding feud between the Los Angeles school district and its two San Fernando Valley charter schools came before the Board of Education for the first time Monday, with school and district officials holding fast to their opposing views on how the nearly independent campuses should be supported.

Parents and staff members from the Vaughn Street and Fenton Avenue elementary schools in the northeast Valley maintained that they are entitled to about $3,100 per student to run their charter campuses, which have been freed from most state and local educational regulations. They appealed to the Board of Education to cast aside traditional budget practices that have dictated lesser funding for elementary than for secondary schools.

“It seems like the old system is running again,” Vaughn Principal Yvonne Chan told school board members in an angry, tearful demand for more funding. She said the district’s adherence to practices “that no longer serve” would hamper meaningful educational reform.

Although board members expressed willingness to re-examine the funding gap between elementary schools and their secondary counterparts--which cost more to operate--district officials insist that they remain legally bound to allocate money to Vaughn Street and Fenton Avenue in the same per-pupil amounts that go to the city’s other 419 elementary campuses.

The district has offered between $2,800 and $2,900 per pupil to Vaughn and Fenton, which serve mostly minority students from poor households.

The faculties of the two schools voted earlier this year to make them charter schools, exempting them from most district and state regulations, as is permitted under a law passed last year.

“We want to applaud the charter schools for fighting for their schools on the funding issue,” Supt. Sid Thompson said. “(But) as superintendent of the district I have the obligation to be fair to all our schools.”

District officials also took exception to accusations that the mammoth school system reneged on an agreement to abide by an opinion issued last month by state education authorities on the issue. School officials say the guideline guarantees them the $3,100 funding figure, but the district contends that the opinion is open to interpretation.

“This is not a district or board known for thumbing its nose at state directives,” board member Mark Slavkin said. But he and his colleagues promised to work hard to come to a resolution by Nov. 15 after representatives from the district’s employee unions urged the board to act decisively to end the stalemate.

A public hearing on the issue has been scheduled for Monday.