Assistance teams will be sent to troubled school districts

Offering ambitious rhetoric, but relatively few dollars, the governor and education officials Wednesday unveiled their plan to improve 97 school districts that face the stiffest sanctions for failing to meet federal academic improvement targets.

The crux of the strategy is to send out “assistance teams” to ailing school districts including the state’s largest, Los Angeles Unified with 700,000 students, as well as smaller ones, such as Marin County’s Lagunitas with 250 students.

“The goal is not to punish the school district,” said state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. “We’ll be working in a collaborative, constructive manner with each of these districts. Student achievement will occur much more quickly with supportive intervention rather than cutting money or closing schools or laying people off.”

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, California could have closed schools, dissolved districts, fired superintendents and removed school boards. Instead, the focus will be on each district’s curriculum -- the mildest option available under the law.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a total onetime assistance of $45 million in federal funds for the ailing school districts. But districts still face more than $4 billion in cuts included in his provisional budget. Across the state, at least 5,000 teachers have so far received notice that they could be laid off, according to the California Teachers Assn.

At a Sacramento news conference, Schwarzenegger blamed boom-and-bust budget cycles needing permanent reform.

“It is a roller-coaster ride that we are taking our children on that is not fair,” he said.

But the governor added, “It’s not just the funding that will help those schools, it will be also reforming the system and switching our personnel, and helping them in every way possible.”

Wednesday’s proposal is, by default, a remnant of what Schwarzenegger originally touted as his Year of Education. A few initiatives still are moving forward, including a system to track the academic progress of California students and proposed rules giving school districts more flexibility in spending money.

Federal law required the state to sanction “failing” school districts, which numbered 99 until two were taken off the list. By Wednesday, officials had grouped the remaining districts into three categories of severity. Two of the six districts in the bottom group are Keppel Union Elementary in northeast Los Angeles County and Coachella Valley Unified in Riverside County.

Keppel Supt. Linda Wagner said she looked forward to working with an assistance team from the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

“That will be helpful,” she said. “They’ve done positive work already for us.”

Keppel’s demographics are typical of districts on the list: 83% of its 3,000 students are poor; half are English learners, a percentage that has risen sharply. In recent years, the district has replaced its superintendent and half of its principals.

The single most severe sanction was placed on Coachella Valley, which O’Connell proposed placing under control of a state-appointed trustee. In 2005, that district had agreed to face penalties in exchange for a $1.9-million grant if test scores didn’t rise fast enough. It used the money to buy an elementary school curriculum and boost its efforts to help English learners.

“Every penny was well spent and I’d do it again,” said Supt. Foch Pensis. Coachella Valley serves 18,000 students, including 11,000 English learners.

Pensis also is dealing with cutting $12.5 million from a $160-million budget.

“We built programs to serve English learners and we’re going to have to tear that down,” he said. “People are going to come in to evaluate our district, and they will see a shell of our programs.”

Other affected districts in Riverside County include Palm Springs Unified and San Jacinto Unified. In Orange County, Santa Ana Unified also made the list.

A different sort of problem confronts the Orange County Office of Education, which the state regards as an agency that is needed to help school districts in its region. The office may be unable to offer assistance because it too landed on the “failed” list, in large part because of the test scores of students it serves in Juvenile Hall, said Laura Wagner, administrator of the state’s intervention assistance office.

Wednesday’s announcement contained no surprises for L.A. Unified, said Supt. David L. Brewer. His district fell short because of its graduation rates and the English scores of English learners and disabled students.

“My whole high-priority schools plan was a reaction to this,” said Brewer of a reform strategy.

Other L.A. County school districts on the list include Palmdale Unified, Compton Unified, Antelope Valley Union, Montebello Unified and Pomona Unified.

The proposed action for 97 districts is scheduled to go next month before the state Board of Education, which is expected to approve it.

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howard.blume@latimes.com

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A list of the school districts and related information can be found on the state education department website at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac /ti/leaspiyr3.asp.