Budget Move Would Impact Some 1,180 Students at Racially Diverse School

Faced with a $640-million budget deficit, the Los Angeles Unified School District has proposed eliminating bus transportation this fall for about 1,180 Palisades Charter High School students who travel from more than 100 Los Angeles zip codes.   ’When I found out, I was shocked,’ said PaliHi freshman Maria Morfin. ‘I thought my future is gone.’   Morfin, whose bus trip from Sun Valley takes her an hour and a half, told the Palisadian-Post that her parents would be unable to drive her. Meanwhile, the public high school in her gang-infested neighborhood does not provide the same high quality of education or a safe environment to study, she said.   ’Here, possibilities come true,’ said the 14-year-old, who hopes to become a physician’s assistant.   Last Thursday, 200 parents and students, who travel from communities such as East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and Inglewood, attended a meeting in Mercer Hall at PaliHi to find out more about the proposal and talk about solutions.   ’This is your school; we want you here,’ PaliHi Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held told the group, adding that the traveling students comprise 42 percent of the student population. ‘Diversity is a key part of our success at this school.’   She explained that PaliHi recently submitted its charter application to the district for renewal, which gives the district an opportunity to renegotiate terms. As a result, the district has proposed cutting transportation (25 buses a day) for a savings of about $2 million.   '[We] cannot continue to transport students to an independent charter school at district expense when we are facing larger class sizes, layoffs and substantial cuts to district programs,’ Estelle Luckett, director of LAUSD’s Student Integration Services, told the Post.   PaliHi, which opened in 1961, separated from LAUSD in 2003 as an independent charter school, by which it receives funding directly from the state and operates under its own governing board. LAUSD, however, continues to oversee the charter to make sure the school is being governed properly.   Since the late 1970s, LAUSD has also paid to transport students to the school through the Permits with Transportation (PWT) program, which provides transportation for Hispanic, black, Asian and other non-Anglo-Saxon students to predominantly white schools and vice versa. LAUSD also transports students to PaliHi’s magnet program, which is one of 173 programs within the district that provide students of different ethnicities the opportunity to focus on a specific subject. Pali’s magnet is geared toward math, science and computer technology.   The district is required to offer these integration programs under a 1963 lawsuit, Crawford v. Board of Education of Los Angeles, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1982. PaliHi has educated about 10,000 students in the PWT and magnet programs since their inception in 1977, according to Dresser-Held.   Students are also bused to PaliHi through Public School Choice, a No Child Left Behind mandate that requires the district to provide transportation from low-performing schools to higher-performing schools and through the Capacity Adjustment Placement program, which is intended to alleviate overcrowded schools.   Luckett argues that PaliHi should pay for the busing if the school wants to continue to educate these students. Racial diversity has been a key provision of the school’s charter since 1993, when the school initially gained charter status.   ’Palisades Charter High School receives the full state allocation (based on average daily attendance) for each of those students and the district does not,’ Luckett said.   Schools are paid a certain amount per student annually based on their attendance rate. This year, the state is giving PaliHi $5,831 per student, or about $6.9 million for the 1,180 traveling students. If those students attended other LAUSD schools that are not fiscally independent charters, the district would receive that money from the state instead. Dresser-Held responded that the school cannot afford to bus the students. The $2- million cost is nearly 10 percent of PaliHi’s $22-million operating budget. Eighty percent of the budget is dedicated to teachers’ salaries and benefits, while the remaining 20 percent covers the costs of utilities, food service, textbooks, custodial services and more.   She argues that LAUSD has the money to pay for the transportation from a Targeted Instructional Improvement Grant, which the district receives from the state to support court-ordered integration programs. PaliHi is not eligible for this grant.   ’We are trying to negotiate with the district on the best way to proceed,’ Dresser-Held said, adding that she and PaliHi’s Operations Manager Maisha-Cole Perri met with LAUSD’s Director of Transportation Enrique Boull’t to discuss options.   They analyzed the number of riders per bus traveling to and from PaliHi and Paul Revere Middle School, which also educates students from all over Los Angeles. They discovered that the 45 buses are not filled to capacity, and by aligning PaliHi’s and Paul Revere’s drop-off and pick-up times, the district would save $1.2 million. PaliHi has also proposed reducing the number of 5:45 p.m. pick-up buses from five to three for a savings of $500,000. The buses pick up students in the afternoon at 2:15 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5:45 p.m. The evening buses are for athletes and students participating in after-school sports and clubs. Luckett told the Post that the district is verifying the accuracy of PaliHi’s proposal. ‘No final decision has been made,’ she said. ‘We continue to hope that Palisades will reimburse the district for transportation, so there is no disruption. If that doesn’t happen, we will work closely with parents to find other options for these students.’ However, Dresser-Held believes that PaliHi’s program is the best option. ‘We’re serving the traveling students better than their home schools,’ she said. PaliHi’s African American and Latino students are performing better than their respective racial groups at their neighborhood schools such as Crenshaw, Dorsey, Manual Arts, Los Angeles High and Jefferson. Last school year at PaliHi, African Americans received an Academic Performance Index (API) score of 704 and Latinos a score of 762. At their neighborhood schools, the African Americans and Hispanics are generally scoring in the 500s and 400s. API is based on test results from the Standardized Testing and Reporting program (STAR) and the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE). Dresser-Held continued that the cuts will disrupt education because Paul Revere and PaliHi teachers collaborate, and the district would continue to bus students to Paul Revere. ‘We would still give preference to Paul Revere students, but they would have to figure out how to get here on their own,’ she said. PaliHi officials are considering other alternatives if LAUSD does not accept the proposal, Dresser-Held said. These include working with Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Santa Monica Big Blue Bus to provide reduced-cost bus tickets. Parents could also pitch in to fund bus transportation or arrange carpools. PaliHi mother Cherry Goff, who lives near the intersection of Crenshaw and Hyde Park, said she would be willing to work overtime at her job at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk to help pay for busing. She doesn’t want her son, Christian Allende, to ride the MTA bus because she believes he would be more susceptible to gang activity, and she can’t drive him. ‘I have always had a good experience with these schools,’ Goff said, adding that Allende, a freshman at PaliHi, attended Brentwood Elementary Magnet School and Paul Revere. ‘Plus, I don’t have to worry while I am at work. I don’t get calls that ‘We’re going to have to close down the school [because of a shooting].” She fears he would have to attend his neighborhood school, Crenshaw. Luckett said if LAUSD stops providing transportation to PaliHi, these traveling students would still have alternatives. ‘The district could accommodate the magnet students by relocating [PaliHi’s] math/science magnet program to another campus,’ Luckett said. ‘The Permits with Transportation students could be accommodated at other successful LAUSD high schools.’ In addition, the district would identify another school that is considered high achieving under No Child Left Behind. Dresser-Held is rallying parents and students to help save the buses. At last Thursday’s meeting, she asked them to sign a petition that will be sent to LAUSD. ‘United is the only way to confront this,’ Dresser-Held told the group. ‘There is power in community.’ PaliHi will post up-to-the-date information regarding this issue on its Web site, www.palihigh.org.

If you depend on the Big Blue Bus line No. 9 to travel between Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades weekday mornings, you know Ignacio Romero”even if you don’t know him by name. The mustached bus driver cuts a distinctive presence with his sunglasses, his uniform, the number 7 on the silver pendant pinned to his black vest”all topped with a dark beret that may suggest a hint of military commando. However, front and center are the warm greetings and the avuncular smile Romero offers his riders as they board and depart his bus. ‘Working for the Big Blue Bus is a privilege,’ Romero told the Palisadian-Post last week. Likewise, Santa Monica’s bus company thinks highly of him. On February 2, the City of Santa Monica honored Romero” alongside other municipal service people, such as dedicated employees of the police and fire departments”at a service awards ceremony. The City singled out Romero from among some 300 employees of Big Blue Bus, presenting the veteran driver (or motor coach operator, as he is officially classified by his employer) with a certificate, a ring and a gold watch, to honor his 30 years of service. ‘Everyone is excellent,’ Romero said. ‘I have a good relationship with all of the drivers and with the public.’ Just like the days of the week, no two trips are alike. ‘Every trip is a new adventure, even if it’s a small one,’ said the 60-year-old Palmdale resident, who has been married to wife Ruthie (whom he met at a Venice High School party) for nearly 40 years. The couple has three daughters: Elizabeth, a teacher in Antelope Valley; Serena, who lives in Valencia and gave birth to their first grandchild, Jadon, two years ago; and Gina, a registered nurse in Massachusetts. When he’s not working, Romero sometimes operates a bus of his own”a Winnebago”that he likes to drive up to Lake Elizabeth or Lake Hughes to go fishing. The City of Santa Monica’s bus system, however, is his daily domain. ‘The people on board, we call them ‘precious cargo,” said Romero, whose driving record, after three decades, remains impeccable: not one accident. Ignatio Romero, Jr. (his friends call him ‘Nacho’) was born in Tepatitlan, Mexico, to Ignatio, a construction worker, and Juanita, a homemaker. In a family of five brothers and three sisters, Romero was the baby boy. In the same year the Beatles invaded America, Romero’s family moved to America in 1964. Romero was 14 when they settled in Santa Monica, where he attended John Adams Junior High and Santa Monica High. ‘It was very hard going to school and not knowing the language,’ he said, adding with a laugh, ‘I’m still picking it up!’ After graduating, Romero worked for a few years as a truck driver for the now-defunct Bush Moving and Storage before segueing into the bus-driving profession. Romero originally worked the No. 2 line (Venice/UCLA) and drove various other routes before settling into No. 9 about six years ago. Beginning at Olympic Boulevard and Avenida Mazatlan every weekday at 5:40 a.m., he makes seven round trips daily from downtown Santa Monica to western Marquez Avenue (at Sunset Boulevard) in the Palisades. Each trip takes about an hour to complete. ‘What I like about the 9, it’s the same people,’ Romero said. Citizens such as the 84-year-old doctor who boarded the bus last week in downtown Santa Monica wearing a vintage purplish suit and fedora. Or the 45-year-old woman who talks about her relationship problems. Or the senior citizen at the Mesa Road stop who rides up the hill to go shopping in the Palisades. Or the eccentric property owner who gets on in Santa Monica and blows Romero kisses after exiting the bus at San Vicente and Seventh Street. Years ago, Romero recalled, he used to drive members of the Marquez family into Santa Monica Canyon. One relative even invited him to San Lorenzo Street to visit the Marquez family’s private cemetery (Romero never took her up on it). Romero realizes how crucial his service is. A healthy portion of the domestic workforce coming to the Palisades every day depends on his bus. Often, people who work in the village are recognizable on the 9, such as the employees in their black Caf’ Vida t-shirts and caps. ‘A lot of people in Pacific Palisades come here to work,’ Romero said. ‘It’s a very important line.’ The fact that the friendly, gregarious Romero also speaks Spanish fluently makes his rapport with many daily riders that much smoother and homier. As the Mexican and Central American housekeepers and babysitters get off the bus along Chautauqua and on Sunset, they shower Romero with a bevy of small talk and ‘Gr’cias!’ as they would a friend. Riding the 9 up Chautauqua Boulevard in the morning”with the loud, cheerful bursts of Spanish in the air”can often resemble a moving party. The lively atmosphere suits the friendly driver just fine. ‘They talk about their life, their experiences, the people they work for, their problems,’ Romero said of the Spanish-language workers. ‘They also talk about the world and the economy.’ By now, Romero’s trained ear can often discern four or five conversations at a time without ever looking back. So what’s with the beret, Nacho? Did you once serve a tour in Vietnam? ‘This is part of the uniform,’ Romero said. ‘So is the vest! I love it!’ As it turns out, while some other bus drivers forego the beret, Romero wears his with pride. Of course, the driver has seen the area change across three decades. ‘There’s more traffic, more people than when I started,’ he said. ‘[Santa Monica] was like Pacific Palisades before. Now, it’s a big city. ‘Always show compassion to people,’ he continued. ‘And give the kids respect and they give you respect in return. The kids are not animals. They’re very smart. They know more than I do with the computers and everything. They grow up faster today.’ One woman, a panhandler who picked up the bus on Fourth Street, interrupts a conversation to give Romero an unsolicited endorsement to a reporter. ‘He’s a good guy,’ she said, before departing to occupy a spot on PCH and Chautauqua, where she begs for change. Indeed, the homeless who sometimes congregate along that corner, such as a man regularly seen sweeping outside the restaurants, throw waves at Romero, even though most of them never ride his bus. They’re evidently happy to see his friendly, familiar face. Rich or poor, whatever their background, ‘I treat everyone just the same,’ Romero said. ‘I’m just doing my work.’ After his decades-long connection to the area, Romero is still enchanted by the beautiful scenery along his route and the ocean view at PCH. ‘It’s so nice,’ Romero said. ‘In the summer, you can feel the breeze coming in. I see the beach all the time. It’s very relaxing. That’s why I’m always smiling!’ On a recent afternoon after his shift, Romero was recognized by some of his regulars as he sat to discuss his career over coffee with the Post. A customer named Theresa, on her way into the coffeehouse, came over to the affable driver and asked him, ‘You want me to buy you a cookie?’ She wasn’t making chit-chat; she was serious. Romero politely declined, but he did offer her some warm words and a smile. As he will the next time Theresa boards line No. 9.