Calling Students Back : Campaign Launched to Boost Low Adult Enrollment

Worried that a drastic drop in enrollment at community adult schools after the Northridge earthquake could threaten future attendance-based funding, school district officials are launching an all-out campaign to draw students back to class.

Already struggling to boost enrollment that stagnated with the economy in the last few years, Los Angeles Unified School District adult schools suffered an additional blow when the quake hit, displacing students or leaving them simply too rattled to return to class.

“I am concerned for the long term,” said James Figueroa, who oversees the district’s adult schools, which teach English as a second language, citizenship and other subjects in day and evening classes to about 400,000 students.

“This city is going through great changes, starting with the civil unrest and followed by the floods and fires and now the earthquake. People are becoming more reluctant to go out in the evenings.”

More than six weeks after the temblor, many San Fernando Valley campuses have 20% to 30% fewer students than they had at this time last year. At the hardest hit campuses, including El Camino and Kennedy, enrollment still hovers at 40% of the pre-quake attendance in some classes.

Most of the missing are recent immigrants, who make up the majority of English as a second language classes.

“Their jobs are gone, they lost furniture, possessions, living accommodations. These things are taking their full-time attention,” said Martin Conroy, principal of Reseda Community Adult School. “When you have these kinds of problems, school’s going to have to go. Once it goes, your pattern shifts and it’s hard to get back into a schedule.”

One group may not return under any circumstances.

According to teachers and administrators at many Valley adult schools, countless numbers of students packed their belongings and fled to their native countries or other states after the quake.

Marian Blake, an ESL teacher at the Reseda Community Adult School, said two women in her class headed for Mexico after the temblor. “When you are really scared, you need to be with people you can really talk to,” she said. “You don’t want to be a stranger among strangers.”

Others like Jose Flores, a student at Reseda Community Adult School, are having trouble getting back on schedule. Flores, 24, lost his apartment in the earthquake and slept in his car for more than two weeks while he applied for assistance. During that time, his English class was not the first thing on his mind. He returned to school two weeks ago, but his attendance is still sporadic.

“It will be hard to come back to normal,” said Flores, who works as a nurses’ aide at a Tarzana rehabilitation center. “I’m planning to go back to school, but I lost everything I had. I have to replace everything.”

Administrators are launching new efforts such as a districtwide televised learning program this month that will allow students to watch lessons on television and report to school only periodically.

To encourage former students to return and potential ones to enroll, the district is spending $30,000 in advertisements on buses and local foreign language radio stations with messages like: “Our doors are still open” and “We are up and running.” District officials are also urging principals and teachers to campaign for students in their communities.

Elaine Portnoy, assistant principal at Kennedy San Fernando Adult School, printed thousands of fliers for distribution at elementary schools, libraries and retail shops to encourage students to return.

While a section of the California Education Code will likely protect the adult schools from the immediate financial loss that would normally be inflicted with decreased enrollment, administrators worry that the earthquake--coupled with the sluggish economy and the increased reluctance of students to leave home at night--will have a long-term negative effect on enrollment.

Although the district has an enrollment cap beyond which it will not receive state funding, officials are scrambling to attract as many new students as they can because projections put this year’s attendance rates well below the cap.

Lupe Reyes, director of the district’s adult schools, said reaching those who are still out of class will be a difficult task.

“The longer a student stays out, the less likely he is to return,” Reyes said. “Our students come to us on a voluntary basis. Any time there is any change in the normal routine, that affects us. It seems like one thing after another in the past few years.”