Grants Given to Area Schools

An 80-student charter school in South-Central Los Angeles, a cluster of campuses serving 8,000 students in the heart of Norwalk, and six “families” of schools from across the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District are among the latest beneficiaries of the nation’s largest privately funded education reform program.

New grants announced this month total $3.7 million and bring to $36 million the amount of money allocated by the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project. The five-year project, now in its third year, will eventually provide $53 million in grants that must be matched dollar for dollar from other sources by the public schools that receive them.

School districts apply for the grants, which are meant to add momentum to ongoing school reform efforts by furthering communications and coordination among groups of elementary, middle and high schools. The local effort is part of a $500-million donation to public schools in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and elsewhere by the Annenberg Foundation, which is endowed by philanthropist and publishing magnate Walter H. Annenberg.

The Los Angeles project has now made grants to 24 families of elementary, middle and high schools in 12 school districts. Those 202 schools have 168,500 students and more than 5,500 teachers.

The six families of schools in the Los Angeles district that joined the Annenberg project this month are eligible for a share of $21 million that was previously allocated to the huge district. They include schools feeding into Canoga Park, Chatsworth, Fairfax, Kennedy, North Hollywood and Palisades high schools.

Other recipients include:

* The Accelerated Charter School in South-Central Los Angeles, $250,000. Opened in 1994 in leased classrooms, the school now serves 82 students from kindergarten through sixth grade. The grant will be used to enhance the training of parents and teachers and strengthen the school’s demanding academic program.

* Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, $1.3 million, to improve the achievement levels of students at John Glenn High School by setting standards and establishing common expectations at the high school and two nearby middle schools and five elementary schools. The money will also be used to address social and health needs in the area.

* Long Beach Unified School District, $1.1 million. The grant will help schools feeding into Wilson High School work on establishing academic standards, train teachers to use computer technology, develop electronic portfolios for students and increase parental participation.

* Baldwin Park Unified School District, $1 million. Baldwin Park High School and its surrounding middle and elementary schools will develop a new reading curriculum, integrate academic and career education and enhance social services and teacher training.