District to Study School’s Big Savings

Intrigued by news that the San Fernando Valley’s first charter school will end the year with a projected $1.2-million surplus, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said Monday they will send two auditors to the Pacoima school to see just how the feat was accomplished.

Two members of the district’s budget office are reviewing the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center’s budget today to determine whether the cash-strapped district can benefit from any of the cost-saving measures used by the 1,150-student school.

“If that can be replicated, hallelujah,” said district Supt. Sidney A. Thompson. “We need to see how she got there and what she did to get there--$1.2 million is a lot of money.”

Under the 1992 state Charter Schools Act, up to 10 schools in any district and 100 in the state can achieve charter status. The schools continue to receive public funds, but are free from state laws and regulations on how to use the money.

Vaughn--considered the most financially daring of 33 operating charter schools in the state--took charge of its budget matters when it opened as a charter school last July, including hiring and paying its own teachers and buying its own liability insurance.

Vaughn Principal Yvonne Chan said the school saved about one-fourth of its $4.5-million budget this year by cutting administrative costs and raising student and teacher attendance rates, among other things.

Chan said she hopes the district will use Vaughn’s experience as proof of the power of local decision-making.

“What they can learn is what it really costs to properly run a school--that there’s hope for us,” she said. “And that we have the resources to turn things around.”