Community Work Required at Chatsworth High : Service: The school becomes the first in the county to make 20 hours of volunteer activity a prerequisite to graduation.

Beginning this semester, Chatsworth High School students are required to do community service work to earn their diplomas, making the school the first in Los Angeles County to adopt such a graduation requirement.

Every student now in grades nine, 10 and 11 must complete 20 hours of community service by the time they finish high school, or face the possibility of not graduating. This year’s senior class will have to perform only 10 hours of work.

Last year, the school tested the program on its senior class, with 90% of the students participating in projects ranging from volunteer work with local politicians to planting trees at the new Metrolink station in Chatsworth.

The idea for the requirement stems from the School Based Management Plan that Chatsworth High has been participating in for the last three years. Members of the plan’s management committee decided to phase in the community service requirement to bolster students’ awareness and pride in their neighborhood, said Chatsworth Principal Donna Smith.

Chatsworth is the only school in the county or city to impose such a requirement, said county education officials.

“This gets kids to appreciate their community and how they can give back to the community,” said Smith, who also pointed out that the volunteer program allows students to explore career possibilities.

While the logistics of implementing and enforcing the new policy have yet to be fully fleshed out, students will be asked to present letters signed by their project leader to school officials proving they did their community service work.

All volunteer service must be done after school or on weekends, and no academic credit will be given, said Ed Burke, a government teacher and a coordinator of last year’s senior volunteer program.

Students can participate in programs already approved by the school or come up with their own plans. Some students have already expressed interest in upcoming community events, Burke said, like an AIDS march at the end of this month.

“I applaud (Chatsworth High School’s) efforts. All high school students should have this type of experience,” said Los Angeles Board of Education member Julie Korenstein.

The seeds of the community service requirement were sown eight years ago when Korenstein set up a voluntary exploratory development program at Chatsworth High, in which students could do 90 hours of volunteer work to earn school credit.

“It’s a bridge between being a young, inexperienced teen-ager and the transition into the work force,” Korenstein said, explaining that although the young adults are not being paid for their work, their efforts count as work experience.

On Monday, the first day of school, 17-year-old Willy Leon, a Chatsworth High junior, said he did not know about the new policy. But he proclaimed it “a pretty good idea.” Leon said he would be most interested in doing volunteer work at the high school itself.

During her tenure as a Los Angeles school board member, Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg proposed a districtwide community service requirement. Her proposal was not approved.

“People were afraid that the record-keeping would be so enormous that it would not be possible,” Goldberg said.

“Certainly I would love to see all the schools individually do this. . . . The value of it is hard to deny. Everybody runs about saying how alienated youth are. Of course they are. They’re not connected. By serving lunches and helping out at a child-care center, those kids will feel very different about themselves.”