Palos Verdes parents drop plans for charter school

Supporters of a breakaway charter school in the high-achieving Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District have dropped the effort, at least for now. The proposed charter, which some parents said would have provided an alternative to the standardized-testing culture of district schools, bitterly divided the wealthy enclave.

Parents said the decision to withdraw the proposal Monday was prompted by community opposition, concerns about the nonprofit with which they planned to partner, and the likelihood that trustees would reject the petition next week. But supporters say they plan to regroup and consider their options, including possibly proposing another charter school in the fall.

“Obviously, it takes a lot to buck the status quo, and I think the status quo is obviously very powerful in Palos Verdes,” said Michael Schwerdtfeger, the lead petitioner whose three children attend district schools. We “never wanted to do this to start World War III. We all wanted to do it because we thought, and still think, a charter school would be a great opportunity in Palos Verdes.”

Supt. Walker Williams has previously said that if the charter were approved and met its 220-student enrollment target, nearly $1.3 million in state funding would follow students out of district schools and into the charter.

This would have come as the district expects to lose $3.7 million because of state budget cuts and has issued tentative layoff notices to nearly 60 teachers. Williams seemed pleased Tuesday that the proposal had been dropped.

“The district has expended a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources on this process,” he said in a written statement. “All of us look forward to focusing on the real needs and priorities of the school district.”

The debate over the proposed Theory Into Practice (TIP) Academy was the most bitter fight in the 12,000-student district since the early 1990s, when declining enrollment forced the district to close several schools.

Charters are independently run, publicly funded schools that are freed of many state and district regulations in exchange for increased student achievement. Although charter students would have still taken standardized tests, TIP proposed using “differentiated instruction,” which recognizes that different children learn best in different ways, and values interdisciplinary and real-world studies.

A meeting last month to discuss the proposal had to be moved from district headquarters to a high school gymnasium to accommodate the 500 parents, teachers and others who turned out.

Beyond fiscal concerns, opponents focused much of their anger on the founder of TIP Education Inc., a nonprofit company with which the proposed charter had planned to contract for curriculum and other assistance.

Michael Hazelton, chief operating officer of the Encinitas TIP school that was the model for the Palos Verdes proposal, has been involved with charter schools that ran into financial and other trouble.

Hazelton declined to comment Tuesday.

Relations between TIP and the charter parents had soured in recent weeks. Hazelton sent a letter to them and the district on Friday withdrawing TIP’s support and name from the proposed charter.

Schwerdtfeger said the families had grown concerned that Hazelton’s “baggage” and commitments to other schools could harm their effort.

Opponents vowed to fight any future charter proposals and urged the charter parents to work with the district.

Tracey Lyons Tozier, whose two children attend Mira Catalina Elementary, said mending the community divide would take time.

“It’s a shame,” she said, “how many families are no longer talking to one another over this issue.”

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seema.mehta@latimes.com