Officials Say Pacoima School’s Savings Can’t Be Duplicated : Education: District praises staff but says other campuses do not get breaks that allowed $1-million surplus. Vaughn Learning Center director disagrees.

While admitting that Los Angeles schools could learn effective new ways to save money from a Pacoima charter school, a financial review of the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center’s budget concludes that the school received special treatment that cannot be extended to other campuses.

In a three-page review sent to Los Angeles Board of Education members Thursday, district officials found that Vaughn succeeded in saving a total of $1 million, in part by decreasing student and teacher absenteeism and by hiring less experienced--and less expensive--teachers.

But the report also calculated that most of the savings--about $700,000--came from the district giving Vaughn financial breaks on costly items.

Vaughn, for example, was given more money for teacher salaries and benefits than other schools and charged less for Los Angeles Unified School District support services, the report showed. The district would be unable to give those same breaks to other campuses, officials said.

In addition, the review found that the school, led by school director Yvonne Chan, had miscalculated its surplus by about $200,000.

The district financial study was prompted by Chan’s public assertions that she had saved $1.2 million this year by operating the school more efficiently. In response, the district sent two members of the accounting division to review the school’s finances for four days.

Chan, who met with the accounting officials on Thursday afternoon, said she disagrees with the finding that her surplus has dropped to $1 million. In addition, she said the school’s successes could be easily duplicated across the system.

“I don’t think we’re any smarter than anyone else,” Chan said. “I don’t think we have any better conditions than anyone else. If we can do it, why can’t everyone?”

The district report praised Chan and her staff for being innovative and for implementing many of the reforms other schools are attempting.

“Dr. Chan, her staff and parents are to be commended for their vigorous efforts in effecting school flexibility and reform,” the report said, “even though a substantial portion of the savings resulted from district efforts which treated Vaughn more generously than other district schools.”

Bill Rivera, the district’s spokesman, said the central administration allowed Vaughn to use unique spending practices to help encourage the new charter school. He said the district could not afford to extend the same favorable budget formulas to other campuses.

“She’s doing a hell of a job,” Rivera said. “A lot of schools are going to be looking at this. But a lot of what she has done has been with one-time funds.”

The state Charter Schools Act, passed in 1992, gave campuses authority to break away from many district and state regulations. Using its budget flexibility, Vaughn successfully argued last year for more funds and has waged public battles over the district’s spending practices.

Vaughn ultimately was granted more money per student than most comparable elementary schools, officials said.

Some board members said the system was unfair to other campuses.

“I think we were overly fair to Vaughn,” said board member Mark Slavkin, who voted last fall against giving Vaughn more funds. “I think we did some things for Vaughn that we’re not going to be able to do (for) other schools and it’s not fair to set that up.”

Times education writer Sandy Banks contributed to this story.