Breakup Effort Puts Focus on Improving Schools : Education: New interest among parents and politicians is hailed by those on both sides in debate over dismantling L.A. district.

For the first time in years, the half a million or so Los Angeles students trooping into fall classes this week may wind up atop the local political agenda as parents and politicians turn their attention to improving--rather than abandoning--the city’s public schools.

Growing numbers of politicians and community activists are beginning the 1995-96 school year with hopes of dismantling the Los Angeles Unified School District, which Mayor Richard Riordan has called the worst among America’s big cities.

Riordan, long interested in improving public education, has promised to lend the weight of his office to advise the breakup effort that he believes will lead to better student achievement.

There is also a small but seemingly determined group of parents this year who have transferred their children from private schools to public schools and are hoping to persuade others to join them. They are touting the benefits of a good public school education: no tuition, neighborhood campuses and a mix of students of different races and backgrounds.

Speaking for the district, Los Angeles school board President Mark Slavkin said the breakup, which he opposes, is at least focusing attention on the city school system--the nation’s second largest.

Growing calls for improvement in a school district where more than 40% of its students drop out means “we need to light a fire under people,” Slavkin said. Regardless of whether the district is eventually dismantled--a years-long process--educators have little choice but to try to improve the foundering school system, he continued.

The school board’s most pressing issue, Slavkin said, is “What do we do for our schools in the neighborhood now?”

Despite the district’s well-publicized troubles, including campus violence, Slavkin said he has recently received many calls from parents anxious to get their children into good elementary schools. That, he said, is more evidence of a renewed interest among parents in public education.

Moreover, a tentative salary agreement reached with the city’s 26,000 teachers ends the threat of a strike and is likely to improve morale because of the restoration of some salary cuts that had been made during the state’s recession.

Even district administrators are optimistic for the first time in years.

“I think we’re turning a corner,” said Edward Krojansky, the principal at Sherman Oaks Elementary, where at least 25 new students are transferring from private schools. “We’re getting back to what the district is all about--and that’s educating kids.”

District officials said they have no way of knowing how many new students are enrolling from private schools. But many schools are aggressively marketing new programs, as well as advertising their accomplishments.

A 2-year-old open enrollment policy allowing parents to choose schools outside their neighborhoods is also making campuses more competitive.

Birmingham High in Van Nuys, for example, is offering students an international studies degree this fall, with specialized courses.

Debra Shatford is one parent who is returning her son to public schools. She had enrolled him in private school when he was in third grade. But this year, her son will be a sophomore at Birmingham after transferring from Chaminade College Preparatory School in West Hills.

Her reasons are academic as well as economic.

“Now, not only will we be getting an internationally recognized level of education, but it won’t cost $7,000,” said Shatford, who lives in the West San Fernando Valley. “I went to public schools. I think there are a lot of opportunities in terms of social activities--clubs--at public schools. I just had to be sure . . . I want to give my kids a really good education.”

Likewise, Marta Fernandez, a Van Nuys mother of twins, said she is excited--and a little apprehensive--about sending her freshman boys to Birmingham this fall. Both had previously attended private Catholic schools.

“With the right people in public school, I think it can be a very good situation for my sons,” Fernandez said. “My priority is my children’s education and I really feel that Birmingham is going to be a good school.”

At Carpenter Avenue Elementary in Studio City, principal Joan Marks said she is enrolling nearly 100 new students from private schools. They are all from neighborhood families who say they are gladly trading high-priced tuitions for a seat at one of the district’s top public schools.

“They’re amazed when they come here,” Marks said. “We find a lot of private school kids do a lot of rote [memorization]--they know their multiplication tables up one side and down the other but they’re not creative, they don’t take chances. I think people see creativity here.”

Elsewhere, parents in Tarzana and Santa Clarita are holding meetings to form chapters of Parents for Public Schools, a national organization aimed at recruiting families away from private schools.

“I’m a mother of three children and this [public schools] is my future for a very long time,” said Sally Swiatek of Valencia. “Public schools are really open to us being there; in fact, they welcome us. We just need to develop sustained parent involvement . . . and community involvement.”

Parents for Public Schools, a Jackson, Miss.-based organization, has chapters in 13 states and has just begun to organize chapters in California.

Ann Duffy, the group’s national field director, spent several days last week in Los Angeles talking to parents. She said public education is finally getting the attention it deserves.

“People are saying that public schools are incredibly important to the city and to the local communities,” Duffy said. “They are seeing the value of public education . . . and they want to make it work.”

Officials of the San Fernando Valley’s Parent Teacher Student Assn., which is active in the movement to break up the school district, say they see no conflict between that campaign and the group’s primary mission: to support local public schools.

“The main mission of PTA is to improve education for children,” said Harriet Sculley, the immediate past president of the 31st District PTSA. “If we see that a breakup would do that, I think we’d be remiss in not supporting it--if we can be sure all children would benefit.”

Breakup advocates say the public’s renewed interest in public schools will help their campaign to create a plan for separate districts. Voters will have the final say on the breakup idea.

“This is a complex process and I think you need the entire city of Los Angeles involved,” said Jerry Curry, president of the San Fernando Valley’s United Chambers of Commerce, which is joining the breakup effort. “I think there are some good programs and good people in the system . . . but I still think we need to split up LAUSD.”

Curry’s sentiments are shared in other parts of the district.

In Carson, education activists will submit petitions they say will qualify for a vote on their plan to secede from the Los Angeles school district. In South-Central Los Angeles, a parents group organized by board member Barbara Boudreaux is drafting plans for another separate district there.

Mayor Riordan and state Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills), who wrote key legislation easing the way for a breakup, are expected to convene a task force to examine breakup issues, such as as the division of property, students and district debt.

Members of several Latino groups, who have opposed breakup efforts in the past, met last week and softened their opposition. If a breakup plan fairly addresses desegregation and bilingual classes, “Who knows? Maybe we would support it,” said Ruben Rodriquez, a leader of the Latino Redistricting Coalition.

Otherwise, Rodriquez said, “It’s very simplistic to say just break it up.”

Irene Galvan, another coalition member, said she wants her three school-age sons to get the best possible education if the district is dismantled.

“I feel issues pertaining to Latino children are not being addressed in discussions about the breakup,” she said. “There has to be some guarantees that these children are not going to be ignored.”

Galvan said if the breakup is inevitable, and if racial makeup and funding are equitable--as required by state law--then she would consider supporting the measure. But regardless of that campaign, she said, activists must continue to pressure district officials for improvement.

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Times staff writer Efrain Hernandez contributed to this story.