End of the Line for Edutrain : Officials Begin Trying to Place Students From Failed Charter School for Dropouts

The chill of resignation filled the corridors at Edutrain Charter School on Thursday as a team of Los Angeles Unified administrators--pencils and folders in hand--began the process of transferring students out of the Downtown campus for dropouts.

More than a month after the school board voted to close the independent school, a Superior Court judge made it official late Wednesday by rejecting the school’s last-ditch legal plea. But many of the 100 or so students who showed up Thursday morning still found it hard to accept that the school--the only educational program many said they had ever understood or enjoyed--would no longer exist.

“It all dropped fast--first we lost the staff, then we lost students, then we lost the school,” said Edgar Bernal, 17, who came to Edutrain six months ago after flunking 10th grade at Lincoln High.

As student after student filed into Edutrain classrooms to be interviewed by district administrators, the task ahead became defined by its difficulties.

School board members have promised not to abandon the Edutrain students, and indeed it would be politically controversial for them to do so. But where to send a 16-year-old who has been kicked out of 10 schools or a 21-year-old expelled permanently from the district three years ago for carrying a gun? How to accurately tabulate credits earned after a struggling Edutrain stopped issuing report cards last summer? Where to send a student who is afraid to cross gang turf boundaries?

There is Edgar from Lincoln High, who will only go to schools that would welcome--and not mess with--a member of the Dog Town gang. There is Eric Young, 19, who failed in his senior year but is now just a few credits shy of graduation and enlistment in the U.S. Marine Corps. There is Griselda Gutierrez, 20, a mother who had hoped to finally graduate in the spring with “a party, the prom, the ring, everything.”

“There are some, I just don’t know how they’re going to place them,” said Betsy Wolf, Edutrain’s admissions director, wiping away tears.

As the morning wore on, the solution recommended for many was one of the district’s independent study programs, which operate at dozens of locations around the city and allow students to work at their own pace and in their own homes. Although most of the independent study sites have waiting lists, Edutrain students were assured they would be given priority.

“The other kids on the waiting list are in a school right now. These are not, so they have to be served first,” said Al Soroky, principal of City of Angels, one of two major independent study programs.

For some, continuation high schools--with their more traditional classrooms--looked like a better answer.

“With independent study, you don’t have a teacher there all the time to help you out,” said Jerry Rivera, 17, of Bell Gardens, who dropped out after junior high. “I’m not the smartest guy in this school. I need some help.”

As Rivera considered his options, he quizzed the school officials: “You’re not going to turn out to be like Edutrain, closing down, right?”

“No,” Soroky said emphatically. “We’re part of L.A. Unified.”

Edutrain operated largely independent of the district under 1992 state legislation that permitted 10 charter schools in Los Angeles--and 100 statewide--to create their own programs free of most local and state control.

The school opened in July, 1993, to serve dropouts and other troubled students. It offered various forms of assistance aimed at attracting and keeping those students, including shorter school days, child care and an on-site probation officer.

At first, it was a grand success, its enrollment exploding to more than 500 students during the first year. But the largely inexperienced management became overwhelmed by that growth, leading to internal turmoil, external criticism of sloppy record-keeping and widespread allegations of financial mismanagement.

By fall, Edutrain had fallen deeply into debt and--despite the school’s pleas for a three-month extension--the school board voted Dec. 5 to revoke its charter, making Edutrain the first charter school in the nation to face forced closure.

A lawsuit followed in which Edutrain alleged that it had not been adequately notified of the potential closure. On Wednesday, however, Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien ruled that the district had acted properly.

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Now that the legal wrangling is over, two major problems remain: what to do about the students and what to do about the debt, an issue that is not clearly spelled out in the state’s charter school law.

Edutrain owes at least $1 million, much of it to UCLA for a start-up loan, plus an estimated $290,000 to Los Angeles Unified for overstating the number of students it was instructing.

The school maintains that the district may be responsible for some or all of that debt. The district says it will not repay that $1 million, but may not pursue the debt Edutrain owes it.

“The institution is obviously destitute,” said district General Counsel Richard Mason. “It may not be in our best interest to spend $300,000 in audit time to quantify the amount of money we are owed.”

As for the students, most left campus Thursday armed with the forms that would serve as tickets to their potential new schools. The district administrators urged them to follow through and, as they left, promised to return Monday morning to assist any lingering students.

But Edgar Bernal had refused to talk to them, not liking the choices they offered.

“I got to see what I can do for myself,” he said, as he toyed with his gold hoop earring. “I got to get a school where I can just study and not worry about other people. Like here.”