Partners in Learning : Public and Private Campuses Team Up

It is not a long walk between Burbank Boulevard Elementary School and the Country School. As a graduate of the former and head of the latter, Paul Singer knows the route.

But until two years ago, he didn’t see the potential benefits in the North Hollywood schools’ proximity.

Now Singer is spearheading a private-public partnership in which the campuses pool some of their resources, an arrangement modeled on similar alliances in the business world and tried at a handful of other schools around Los Angeles.

Fourth- and fifth-graders from the public Burbank Boulevard school take weekly 10-minute walks down Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the private Country School for instruction in art, computers and physical education. In exchange, Burbank allows the private school to use its auditorium for assemblies and performances.

Through it all, students at both schools are exposed to children from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“We’re all going to live in the same society,” Singer said. “For people in private schools to act as if the kids in public schools don’t exist is detrimental.”

“If we’re going to ask children to expand their thinking, then [school officials] have to do the same thing,” said Burbank Principal Sharon Greene.

After hearing of a successful private-public school partnership in Santa Monica, Singer brought the idea to North Hollywood as part of a larger effort to promote multiculturalism. The children at the 49-year-old Country School are largely white and come from affluent families, while Burbank is host to mostly minority students, many from struggling households.

For their work with Burbank students, teachers at the Country School are paid a stipend from a fund set up by their school.

For now, students mix only during assemblies, but administrators expect eventually to have joint classes.

Although aware of the broad goals voiced by officials, the fifth-graders who walked to the Country School for computer lessons recently offered a practical reason why they enjoy the partnership.

“We get this for free!” several cried out.

Education experts say the setup represents a middle ground between a voucher system and de facto separation--often along racial and class lines--between public and private schools.

Eiko Moriyama, a Los Angeles Unified School District official who specializes in developing partnerships between schools and companies, said that although partnerships between campuses are not common, they are on the rise, largely due to private schools’ outreach efforts.

Singer said he hopes the Burbank-Country School partnership will inspire other schools to follow suit, just as hearing of the program in Santa Monica inspired him.

“I just thought, ‘Oh, I feel so stupid. It’s so obvious!’ ” he said, smacking a palm against his forehead. “Why shouldn’t there be more schools doing this?”