New Site Sought for Charter Middle School

Educators were seeking another location Wednesday for a new charter middle school after learning that it would be housed in the same building as an adult mental-health facility that treats criminal offenders.

Community Charter Middle School, originally scheduled to open in July with 100 sixth-graders, will instead open by September, officials promised, possibly at a 6,000-square-foot site in San Fernando formerly used as a preschool.

When the Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously approved the charter middle school last month, district officials praised the school’s location in 4,200 square feet of former medical suites near Lake View Terrace Hospital.

Jackie Elliot, a former teacher who has spent more than two years developing plans for the school, said she and other officials were unaware that Hillview Mental Health Center has court-referred adult criminal offenders among its patients.

Elliot said she toured the medical building and spoke with its owner and security staff, among others, all of whom reassured her that she had no need to worry, particularly since the school had its own gated entrance and security.

A Hillview spokesman could not be reached for comment.

School officials learned of the proximity to criminal offenders days after board members approved the school and Elliot signed the lease.

“This doesn’t change the board’s support for the school,” said Kathy Swank, an administrative coordinator for charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. “But some safety concerns were raised.”

Originally, the school was planned for the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley in Pacoima, but that was dropped for more spacious quarters in the medical suites at 11500 Eldridge Ave.

In recent months, Elliot said that during unsuccessful searches, she had “turned the [northeast] Valley inside out.”

“We were not daunted,” she said. “We just moved on.”

Elliot said the school had gotten out of the lease, and that she is negotiating a lease for the San Fernando site.

District officials said the property looks promising, although it will need to be remodeled to accommodate 100 sixth-graders in the fall. By 2001, the school would have 300 sixth- through eighth-graders.

After learning of the move, only two parents pulled their children from the school, which won’t hurt enrollment because of a long waiting list, Elliot said.

The school plans to integrate reading and writing skills into science and social studies classes, require parents to volunteer and offer extended school days to include tutoring and lessons in visual and performing arts.

Supporters of the charter middle school--the first in the Valley, the third in the LAUSD--said it offers an alternative to larger, crowded, financially strapped and impersonal middle schools.

Charter schools operate outside most state and school district guidelines and control finances and curriculum.