L.A. Charter Schools to Get Building Help From Fund Group

A group of nonprofit organizations and financial institutions has created a $36-million fund to help build charter schools in low-income Los Angeles neighborhoods, officials announced Wednesday.

In an unconventional move to pay for charter school facilities, the fund’s financial partners -- including Citibank Community Development, which was the largest contributor with $15 million -- will receive federal income tax credits for their investments, while the schools will be given flexible, below-market-rate loans.

The Los Angeles Charter School New Markets Loan Fund’s nonprofit partners also received grants, including $2 million from philanthropist Eli Broad’s education foundation, that will help the schools repay their loans. Each school will receive about $400,000.

“This is so new and innovative, it may be the model for the rest of the country,” said Wendy Jacquemin, community reinvestment officer at City National Bank, which contributed $4 million to the fund. Prudential Financial and Wells Fargo & Co. also put money into the fund.

Money from the fund will be committed to about five schools in the next six months. One of those, Camino Nuevo Charter High School near downtown Los Angeles, will receive between $7 million and $8 million. School officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for its new campus at Temple Street and Silverlake Boulevard.

Locating real estate, and the money to pay for it, are among the biggest obstacles for California’s publicly funded, independently run charter schools, leaders of the 12-year-old movement say. Charters operate free of many state regulations in the expectation that they will boost student achievement by providing innovative programs.

Although California’s 511 charter schools represent just a fraction of the state’s 9,000-plus public schools, they are becoming increasingly popular -- 78 new charters opened last fall.

“The hardest part is to find an affordable facility,” said Anita Landecker, executive director of the Excellent Education Development organization, which supports charter schools in low-income areas and is a prime mover behind the fund. “Many charter schools start at places like churches and temples.”

The schools have some leeway in finding campus sites because they are exempt from the Field Act, a longtime state law that requires earthquake safety inspections during public school construction. Those sites, however, are not often easy to come by, particularly in cities like Los Angeles, where available land is scarce and pricey.

In 2000, voters approved Proposition 39, which requires school districts to provide facilities for charters within their boundaries. But charter advocates say the proposition is hampered by many school districts that are unable or unwilling to comply.

The New Markets federal tax credits are allocated for the improvement of low-income areas, mostly through commercial development. The fund is the first to use those credits exclusively for charter schools, Landecker said.

Camino Nuevo High School, which officials say is the first to participate in the fund, operated out of a former ice-cream factory during its first year. Its new campus is expected to be completed in July 2006.

The school mostly serves students who otherwise would attend Belmont High School, one of the most crowded campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Araceli Xochipiltecatl’s son, Luis Peres, is in Camino Nuevo’s first class of about 140 ninth graders. (The school will have 130 new freshmen next year.)

Xochipiltecatl, who didn’t graduate from high school, said her son is more engaged in school and that he is succeeding.

“I saw in this year he changed,” she said. “He worked more on his homework. He’s more interested in learning.”

He proudly showed his mother three pieces of his artwork displayed at the groundbreaking. He said his newfound dedication to school is the result of both new teachers -- who “really care about each individual student” -- and new friends, most of whom came from charter middle schools.