CRENSHAW : Contract Snafu Imperils School

Because of unresolved paperwork with two county departments, Principal Joshua Smith was forced to close the Word of God Alternative School’s first through 12th grades three weeks ago. Only the preschool was in session last week at the Western Avenue campus, and its fate remains uncertain.

“If I can get a minimum of $10,000 to make my payroll, I can keep on,” Smith said last week.

The school’s financial troubles began in August, when it requested payment for three students attending through an agreement with the Department of Children’s Services. Monthly tuition, excluding books and registration, is $325; parents who qualified for government aid could get most of those costs covered. Smith said he was expecting payment from the Department of Social Services or the Department of Children’s Services, both of which fund school-payment programs.

In the meantime, the student body swelled to 130 after Smith admitted 23 additional students with Children’s Services paperwork in September with the understanding that they too would be paid for by that department. But by late October, Smith had still received no county money, and the $400,000 that had been budgeted for the school year was quickly running out. He said the $20,000 shortfall has left him unable to pay teachers or himself.

Barry Chass, a finance officer with Children’s Services, said the department is unable to help because only one of the 23 students submitted properly signed papers. The rest, he said, were Children’s Services contracts improperly authorized by workers at Social Services.

“We’re trying to track down where these contracts came from,” Chass said. “We’ve been working with Social Services to clear this up since October. Clearly something has gone terribly wrong.”

Officials from Social Services had no comment.

At this point, talk is purely academic for Smith, who is barely able to keep the electricity on and the water running. His teaching staff is down to four from 15, and he said Friday’s preschool sessions may have been the school’s last.

Smith, a 41-year-old community activist, minister and school administrator, said he founded Word of God six years ago at the urging of parents who wanted him to use his educating skills to personalize classroom instruction. With about 15 students per teacher, many who had been labeled as troubled or academically irredeemable began to flourish. The school was lauded by local educators and politicians such as former Mayor Tom Bradley and state Sen. Diane Watson.

Former students still gathered at the campus as late as last week for ad hoc study sessions.

“I had never really thought about going to college until I came here and met Mr. Smith,” said 19-year-old Michael Younger, a senior who spent a year at Word of God.

Like other former students, Carolyn Cole, 15, is reluctantly shopping for another school. “I got a lot more attention here,” said Cole, whose sister and uncle also attended the school. “The environment, the lack of violence was what I really liked.”

Smith said a different environment was what he strove to create. “Kids came here angry enough to put holes in the walls,” he said. “I was tired of seeing bright, talented kids not getting the attention they needed.”