Rethinking Schools: Scenes From the Front Line of Education Reform in L.A. : Charter Puts Fenton on Fast Track to Success : Once-troubled Lake View Terrace campus has been reinventing itself and creatively solving problems since breaking away from L.A. school district.

When Joe Lucente became principal of Fenton Avenue Elementary six years ago, hisboss talked for an hour about how bad things were at the San Fernando Valley campus.

Slowly things got better. Vandalism, once a regular weekend occurrence, all but stopped. The campus became cleaner, safer, a little more orderly. But student achievement remained low, Lucente said, and the staff was demoralized.

Looking for a faster route to improvement, Fenton Avenue last year joined the fledgling charter school movement. Parents and faculty wrote the proposed charter in a few weeks in the spring of 1993, and all but two teachers signed the document that removed their campus from the sizable umbrella of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Since gaining its freedom in January, the campus below the mountains in working-class, heavily minority Lake View Terrace has been reinventing itself.

Working with essentially the same budget as last year--about $4,500 per student--Fenton has added an after-school enrichment program and study hall, keeping the campus open until after 6 p.m. each day to accommodate working parents and give students time for homework and supervised activities.

Class size was cut from 30 to 25. The school added two full-time teachers to give individual attention to students needing extra help, a counselor, a psychologist and a librarian, and it beefed up security and playground supervision.

These and several other steps were taken, Lucente said, to boost the academic chances of the school’s 1,180 students, most of whom come from families poor enough that they quality for the federal government’s free breakfast and lunch program. Nearly 60% speak little English, turnover is high, and many pupils score well below state and district averages on basic academic skills tests.

To help draw parents into the school’s activities, Fenton started a family center at the school in which parents, both paid and volunteer, learn English, operate a food bank and perform work on the campus. Recently, parents were hired to secure shelves and bolt supply cabinets to make classrooms safer in an earthquake. There are Saturday workshops for parents and students and more English classes for adults in the evenings.

Although Fenton still contracts with the school district for some services, the freedom of its charter status lets school officials act creatively to meet most of their needs. Textbooks can be ordered faster from suppliers, and when the preschool wanted a new sandbox, a local carpenter was hired.

“When we have an idea, something that we as a school community want to do, we can just go ahead and implement it,” said Irene Sumida, Fenton’s director of curriculum. “We can pick and choose among the best, whether it’s something the district does very well--such as its bilingual education program--or something our staff has created just for our students.”

Lucente, who changed his title to executive director, shares day-to-day responsibility for running the school with Sumida, who earns the same salary. She is responsible for the academic programs, he for business operations. Seven so-called working councils of staff, parents and community members set policies, with a 15-member umbrella group to assist with communications and help resolve disagreements in the working groups.

Before the charter, plant manager James Parker said, he often “felt like an outsider. . . . Now I have a vote on everything, and I feel like part of a team. I’ve seen us go from bickering to all getting along and getting things done for the school.”

Most important, Parker added, are the changes he sees on campus. “It’s easier to keep clean now, it feels more tranquil, and the kids seem excited about being here,” said Parker, who has added after-school basketball coaching to his duties.

Teachers, who gave up their union contract and many of its protections to stay at Fenton, said they are working a lot harder now but enjoying it more. Recently, teachers redesigned the school’s report card, with the help of parents, to make it more meaningful and understandable.

“The children know that we mean business, that we are serious and committed,” said teacher Janelle Berz. “It’s an incredible place. I would never go back” to a traditional district school, she said.

For many Fenton students, who attend school year-round on one of three staggered tracks to relieve overcrowding, the most striking change is in the school breakfast and lunch program.

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Lunchtime used to be chaotic, sometimes even humiliating, according to pupils and staff members. Students waited in a single slow-moving line for their food. Those who qualified for federally subsidized lunches had to turn in meal tickets, a cumbersome process that stigmatized poorer pupils. The eating area was noisy, with students shouting, running around, sometimes throwing food and causing other mischief.

Now, meals are served free to everyone and tabulated with bar-coded cards kept at the end of the service lines. There is a choice of three entrees, and students are funneled by aides into lines according to their selections, so there is less waiting. Classical music is piped into the eating area, fostering a soothing, orderly atmosphere.

“I like having the cards and the choices,” said sixth-grader Branden Newsome, 11. “It’s way quieter now, way cleaner and there’s not much fighting anymore.”

Classmate Claudia Lopez, also 11, said she likes the changes in the cafeteria. But they are not what she likes most about Fenton Avenue. “The teachers are very nice. They want you to learn, and they help you,” she said.

Charters are not for everyone, Lucente cautions, but the payoff can be monumental.

“The charter frees us to be the best that we can be,” Lucente said. “As the years pass, we’ll see marked differences in our students’ achievement. There is no doubt in my mind about that.”

Charter Schools

The nationwide charter movement was admitted to California public schools by a 1992 law allowing up to 100 campuses to apply for freedom from many regulations and policies. With the autonomy of a state charter, schools may fashion their own educational styles and programs. Schools must file a detailed plan for improving education, obtain permission from at least 50% of teachers and the local and state school boards, be non-sectarian and tuition-free, and achieve a racial and ethnic balance that mirrors the district population. Charters are granted for five years.

Los Angeles-Area Charters

California has granted state charters to 70 public schools. Those in Los Angeles County are listed below (all except Constellation are in the Los Angeles Unified School District).

* The Open Charter School, Los Angeles

* Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, San Fernando

* EDUTRAIN, Los Angeles

* Fenton Avenue Charter School, Lake View Terrace

* Westwood Charter School, Los Angeles

* Palisades Elementary Charter School, Pacific Palisades

* Marquez Charter School, Pacific Palisades

* Palisades Charter High School, Pacific Palisades

* Canyon Elementary Charter School, Santa Monica

* The Accelerated School, Los Angeles

* Constellation Community Charter Middle School, Long Beach (Long Beach Unified School District)