Plans for Controversial School Spark Protest

Each day from the front porch of her Burbank home, Roseann Mecca looks out as the same mundane scenes unfold on the blacktop of nearby Monterey High School: Teenagers playing sports, gossiping with friends or doing anything to squeeze every last moment from fleeting break time.

But two weeks ago, she grew concerned after spotting workmen erecting 10-foot fences at the school, a 200-pupil continuation school on Parish Place and Monterey Avenue that takes in students with academic problems. A check with school officials revealed plans to add a facility for students with histories of serious disciplinary problems, called a “community school.”

Now Mecca is leading the charge against the Burbank school board, which she accuses of trying to “pull a fast one” by adding the school in her neighborhood.

The 47-year-old bookkeeper said she has organized 200 neighbors to block the district’s efforts. She vowed they would turn out in force at a special school board meeting at 7 tonight at the district’s 330 N. Buena Vista St. headquarters.

“I’m afraid that mixing delinquents with kids who are trying to continue their education is a recipe for disaster,” Mecca said. “This school does not belong in any residential neighborhood in Burbank.”

School officials say they will listen to all the complaints by neighbors in order to reach a reasonable compromise. They also note the district has a legal obligation to provide space for the youths, despite their past behavior.

“I don’t believe the kids are anywhere as bad as the community members are making them out be, and I find it highly prejudicial,” said Burbank School Supt. David Aponik. “But I, my staff, the county office of education, and the Board of Education are more than willing to work closely with them to mitigate concerns.”

Under federal law, all students must attend school until age 16. To comply with those rules, the Burbank school district offers primary and secondary school education as well as so-called alternative schooling, Aponik said.

The Monterey school is currently for high school students who do not function well in a regular school setting or have academic or attendance problems.

Those removed from mainstream schools for disciplinary reasons--which may include drug use or possession of weapons--are now placed in Brighton Community School, operated by the Los Angeles County Office of Education on Burbank school district-owned land.

Since 1992, the Brighton school has been adjacent to district headquarters, school officials said. But the district recently sold the 4-acre site for $8 million to the city, which plans to build a new branch library and park on the land.

With that, school officials began planning to move students onto the campus of the Monterey school.

Burbank police said Brighton school has not gone without complaints over the years. But they add it’s common to receive calls from officials and neighbors about secondary schools citywide.

So far this year, police recorded 26 incidents in the district surrounding Brighton school, ranging from broken windows to noise complaints. But at the same time there were 27 such reports in the area around John Burroughs High School, a mainstream campus, police said.

Of those crimes, eight in the Burroughs High School area were considered serious offenses, such as burglary, aggravated assaults and car theft. At Brighton, there were five such incidents.

“Numberswise, the crime picture is very similar,” said Police Lt. Larry Koch, who added that the number of students attending Burroughs was much larger than the number attending Brighton.

Nevertheless, Brighton’s name became associated with an incident last month in which one of its 16-year-old students allegedly stabbed a 17-year-old classmate to death while attending summer school at Burbank High.

Saying they are conscious of fears surrounding that incident and charges that they are trying to dump dangerous students on a neighborhood, school officials have promised to take additional measures to ensure safety at the Monterey campus.

Aponik said that before the school year begins, the district will provide additional supervision, stagger the opening and closing hours of the two schools there, increase police presence in the neighborhood and eliminate some of the fencing that some charge has created a prison atmosphere.

Several other proposals that could be adopted by the school board include plans to bus the discipline-problem students to and from the campus. Also under consideration is assigning 15 such students of middle-school-age to the Monterey site and placing 40 high-school-age students in temporary classes on the district office site.

Some residents say those proposals are not enough, given the potential for increased crime and a reduction in their property values. The best place for the troubled teens is a venue in a commercial or industrial area, they insist.

“What part of no don’t they understand?” Mecca asked. “We are getting a hard sell from the school district. Their best offer still proposes to put the community program on the Monterey lot.”

Aponik, however, sees the need for more tolerance.

“These are Burbank’s children; they are not criminals,” he said. “They are kids that have made mistakes.”