Open-Enrollment Lotteries Offer Lesson in Long Odds and Luck

The luckiest person in Los Angeles on Wednesday may very well have been Genevieve Winter of Winnetka, numero uno on the open-enrollment list at El Camino Real High School.

Her name plucked from a fish-shaped punch bowl, where it was swimming with 713 other hopefuls, Winter beat some big odds. She was one of only 15 students to get into the much sought-after Woodland Hills school.

Although El Camino Real had announced 75 open-enrollment seats, Principal Ronald Bauer explained to the small crowd gathered for the afternoon drawing that 60 of the slots would be taken by students from nearby Hale Middle School who had applied through open enrollment.

“Let me start at the beginning by saying it’s going to be a tough one,” Bauer said. “But district policy is clear that we have to give priority to our feeder schools.”

The open-enrollment program started in 1994 when many Los Angeles Unified Schools were underenrolled. But just four years later, LAUSD enrollment is at an all-time high.

This year only 7,400 open-enrollment seats were offered, down from nearly 22,000 in the program’s first year.

On Wednesday, Bauer was feeling the pressure. As he began pulling the names, parents sat silently, recalculating the odds with the draw of each slip.

“All day long my stomach was just in knots,” said Sandra Brkich, mother of a 15-year-old daughter who lives just three houses from the El Camino border in Woodland Hills. “I was just hoping to get lucky for once in my life.”

She was not, but she had plenty of company.

At Granada Hills High School, Elsa Merva of Panorama City sat with her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white. She hoped to hear her son’s name called during the morning lottery.

The school had more than 600 applications for its 100 open-enrollment slots. In the attendance office where 30 or so parents sat with their backs against the wall--like troublemakers lined up to see the principal--you could hear a pin drop.

“That’s me,” cried Roberta Benavidez of Sylmar, when her son’s name was called with less than 20 spots left.

“We’re all happy for you, aren’t we?” asked Assistant Principal Joan Lewis, pulling the numbered tickets from a plain cardboard box.

But no one answered. This lottery wasn’t about instant riches or fame, it was about the future.

At El Camino Real, some parents were angry about the futility of their efforts.

“I was expecting that she would have a chance,” said Judy Chung of Northridge, standing in the school’s library where the walls are draped with Academic Decathlon championship banners.

“I’m disappointed,” said her daughter Christine, with a pained smile.

The minuscule odds made Chris Rowe of Woodland Hills shake her head.

“It was bad enough with 75 seats,” Rowe said. “I can do the math in my head with 15, and it’s not even a 2% chance.”

Rowe, who lives in the Taft High School area, said she was angry that she had to go through the process and questioned why there wasn’t more room at El Camino Real for students from nearby neighborhoods. Most of all, she worried about breaking the news to her son.

But the day wasn’t all about heartbreak. A lottery is, after all, a game of chance. And the lucky few rejoiced.

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Benavidez said her heart was in her throat as the numbers were drawn.

Last year, she had applied to Granada Hills for her daughter Renee, but ended up as number 94 on the waiting list. Her daughter instead went to Chatsworth High School on open enrollment and her son to Frost Middle School in Granada Hills, leaving Benavidez with a 60-mile daily drive to get her children to and from school. But the alternative was unacceptable.

“The junior high my son was supposed to go to didn’t even have enough books for all the students,” said Benavidez.

John Davis dropped off his daughter Heather, 14, at Nobel Middle School in Northridge with admonishments about not getting her hopes too high. But he needn’t have worried. Her name was called early on in the lottery at Granada Hills.

Others waited in vain.

For Merva, the options seemed bleak. She was still listening for her son’s name well into the waiting list.

“At least with the wait list, there is hope,” she said.

“But I’m in a very tough situation. I can’t afford private school and the public schools in our neighborhood are not what I want for my child.”