By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer | Daily Breeze | http://bit.ly/gfmbrB
4/10/2011 09:42:17 PM PDT - A controversial plan to turn ailing Westchester High into a magnet school open to students from across the sprawling Los Angeles school district is up for a vote Tuesday, two weeks after the issue was postponed over concern about lack of formal community support.
Board member Steve Zimmer pulled the item - which had drawn mixed reactions locally - from a school board agenda late last month, saying that a campus council needed first to show support for the plan.
Last week, the school's 17-member governance council recommended the Los Angeles Unified School District board approve the magnet concept, with the caveat that the plan was preliminary and would be fleshed out with the "collaborative effort of all stakeholders."
Some council members were won over by a Wednesday letter from incoming Superintendent John Deasy stating that current Westchester High pupils could continue at the school, and that students at feeder middle schools - such as neighboring Orville Wright - "would have an opportunity to apply and enroll."
"That went a long way," said J.D. Webster, chairman of the governance council, who added that a teachers representative had abstained from the vote.
Webster said that council members still have many unanswered questions about the proposal but decided to support it anyway. He termed his opinion "cautiously optimistic."
Under the plan, Westchester High School would reopen in September as Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets, with three courses of study: aviation and aerospace for gifted students, sports medicine and health, and environmental and natural science engineering.
The plan is backed and promoted by Principal Bobby Canosa-Carr, who came to campus last fall and has earned respect even from those who vehemently oppose his vision for the school. Some are worried that Carr, a first-year principal, wouldn't be around next fall to oversee the new magnet, thanks to districtwide layoffs and seniority-based "bumping."
He has said he's committed to the campus and expects to remain at Westchester.
Carr also has said he would seek to continue the successful sports program for which Westchester High has been known.
The magnet conversion is an effort to stem declining enrollment - and address poor test scores - at a school that draws much of its overwhelmingly black student body from outside Westchester. Under court-mandated magnet guidelines, the new school would be composed of 30 percent white students and 70 percent students of color.
The concept has raised hackles in Westchester, in part because race and education are touchy subjects in a majority-white community where many parents have sent their children to other nearby school districts such as El Segundo Unified, which welcomes enrollment from LAUSD.
In recent years, there's been a concerted effort from area parents - led by the Westchester/Playa Education Foundation - to improve local schools and increase enrollment of local students. Members of the nonprofit group and some others feel betrayed by the LAUSD effort to take their high school.
"It just recently dawned on a number of folks that the school would no longer be a community school. It would be open to whoever applied," said Crissina Johnson, who leads a group called Powwow, or Parents of Westchester with Orville Wright. "Potentially, in time, kids who live right down the street may not be able to get into their own school."
Johnson has supported turning the campus into an independent charter school, while some members of the Westchester/Playa Education Foundation want to see local schools secede from LAUSD and form their own district.
Los Angeles Unified officials have said their goal is to increase enrollment - which has declined to fewer than 1,500 students from a number more than double that decades ago - and provide more spaces in the district's popular magnet program.
Zimmer, who has said his main concern was the fate of students in feeder schools, believes the endorsement of the governance council is crucial. The body was created several years ago during a difficult process to wrest control from LAUSD's downtown headquarters, and Zimmer said that circumventing the council was unwise for the district.
Now that the governance council has signaled support, the major change is proceeding.
"In all likelihood, we've gotten a full endorsement to move forward, and I think that's extremely positive for the future of Westchester students and the whole Westside of Los Angeles," Zimmer said.
He added that he was still working to try to ensure that students at feeder elementary schools would be assured a spot at the new magnet school.
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