PACOIMA : Food Programs Open at 2 Charter Schools

In the latest giant step away from the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District, the San Fernando Valley’s two charter schools will begin running their own breakfast and lunch programs today.

After nearly a year of unresolved bargaining with the school district, the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima and Fenton Avenue Charter School in Lake View Terrace announced last week that they would take over fiscal control and legal liability of their cafeterias.

To begin the program, both year-round schools decorated their newly remodeled lunchrooms with balloons and posters and printed expanded menus.

But district officials said the plan still hinges on clarification from the federal government.

“It is new for us, new for the state and new for the feds,” said district business manager David Koch. “We are trying to be as accommodating as possible, but there is a certain amount of prudence and precaution that is mandated in this situation.”

District officials want assurance from the federal government that the district will not be held responsible for the charter schools’ actions.

Charter schools receive public funding, but are free from state and local education regulations to write their own rules. Most of the approximately three dozen charter schools operating in the state pay their districts for food services.

But officials at Vaughn and Fenton say they are entitled to run their own lunch and breakfast programs. Fenton Principal Joseph Lucente estimates the cost of running the program will be about $300,000 a year.

With their independence, both schools hope to reduce waste, increase eating time and boost student enthusiasm for meals.

In the past, students who were eligible for free lunches--more than 90% at each school--were given tickets at the beginning of the year that had to be presented at each meal. Hundreds of tickets were lost every week, slowing down food lines while administrators verified names. Now, both schools will serve free breakfast and lunch to every child, using a bar code system instead of tickets.

Also, instead of having just two choices for entrees at lunch, children will have five. Breakfast used to be cold cereal. Now, it includes sausage biscuits, muffins and breakfast burritos.

Administrators kept pizza, chicken nuggets and hamburgers as menu mainstays, but changed the layout of the lunchroom to encourage students to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables.