Charter Profile, from The Charter School Workbook:
Vaughn Next Century Learning Center
13330 Vaughn Street
San Fernando, CA 91340
Contact: Yvonne Chan
818-896-7461
Grades: PreK-5
Enrollment: 1150
Staff: 150
Per-pupil revenue: $3,962

Vaughn Next Century Learning Center:
The Lessons of Experience

Lead by its charismatic and vigilant principal, Yvonne Chan, the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima, California, accrued savings of $1 million in its first year as a conversion charter school. Chan used California's new charter law to gain fiscal and legal autonomy form the Los Angeles Unified School District, and translate that autonomy into a financial windfall. "When you combine the flexibility available through the Charter Schools legislation...and exemplary administrative leadership, it’s possible to effect change and innovative practices leading to considerable economies," observed Los Angeles Superintendent Sidney Thompson following an audit of Vaughn’s first year ending balances.

The Conversion

In 1990 the Vaughn Street School was a disaster. Drug deals took place on school property, and death threats from drug dealers drove the prior principal out. Internal problems also existed. Teachers were filing grievances against the administrators; 24 of 40 teachers left in the two years prior to Chan’s arrival; and students test scores were the worst in the San Fernando Valley. Chan took over and took the school charter, and the community has never been happier.

The assumption of budgeting and finances enabled the charter school to scale back administrative costs, do its own hiring, and contract out for services. In order to realize full attendance funding, Chan raised the daily attendance rate to 99 percent through rigorous absence follow up and parental involvement. The resulting financial surplus allowed for a reduction of class sizes, an extension of the school year from 167 to 200 days, and the construction of 14 computer equipped classrooms that allow for more instruction and alleviate overcrowding. The construction was done by a neighborhood contractor, parent volunteers, and high school student apprentices as a part of their school-to-work program.

The school's financial success has snowballed. In 1995, the state education department presented the Vaughn Next Century Charter School with the California School Award. Vaughn served as a model site for the RJR Nabisco Next Century Schools, is a Danforth Foundation Successful school, participates in California’s School Restructuring and Healthy Start programs, and received the National Blue Ribbon Award for high school excellence in 1997. The success has drawn a range of kudos from media profiles to a visit from the First Lady, but it did not come without controversy.

Fiscal Haggling

Soon after Vaughn Next Century opened as a charter, Chan charged that the district had shortchanged the school $811 per pupil. State funding called for $3,111 per pupil, but the district delivered $2,300. LAUSD responded that elementary schools receive less than junior and high schools. Moreover, a legal settlement that equalized funding for suburban and urban schools hampered further funding. Chan felt that violated the intention of the charter contract. She sent back the check and prepared to operate the school with a second mortgage on her house. In the midst of the controversy, Assemblyman Richard Katz drafted a bill requiring the district to give Vaughn 95 percent of the money it received from the state for its pupils and the school board backed down and paid Vaughn an additional $500 per student. The law set a precedent for charters' per pupil fund allocation. Says Chan: "We got that money because we went to war."

Chan then used those surplus funds to commandeer the neighboring drug infested housing units for the school's expansion. The Vaughn School received accolades from the state, but not the district, which claimed the funding was reserved for overcrowded schools on year round calendars. The district deducted $166,000 from the school's budget, and Vaughn mobilized against the decision vowing a lawsuit over the matter. The issue attracted ABC’s Prime Time Live; legal friends of Vaughn Next Century represented the school for free; and the State Department of Education also backed the charter school. Assemblyman Katz reflects, "She [Yvonne Chan] should not back down on the year round funding fight. Vaughn has every right to receive this money. This is just another example of the school board showing how stupid and petty it can be." The yea- round funding dispute remains unresolved, and the question is now focused on who owns the building. The district claims that it owns the facility. Vaughn claims that, as a separate legal entity, it owns the structure. If Vaughn proves to be correct, then it is eligible for continued funding to relieve overcrowding.

A New Role for the Union

California's law does not automatically except charter schools from political or contractual labor relation issues. With local school boards as the primary approving authority and a teacher petition process for charter school creation, the position of teacher unions and the interest of the local districts weigh heavily upon charter school requests. The California Teachers Association even sponsors workshops that teach members how to press local boards to reject charter proposals. The Hudson Institute observes, "Those seeking charters find themselves in a `catch-22’ situation: negotiating with those from whom they seek release."

In the summer of 1994, Vaughn Next Century’s teachers found themselves in a bind when the threat of a strike loomed between the teacher union and the LAUSD over pay. Union president Helen Bernstein considered the Vaughn teachers part of the Los Angeles teachers union and expected them to act in solidarity. According to Bernstein, Vaughn teachers are technically on leave from the district and subject to the benefits of union negotiations on salary and health benefits throughout the district. "If the charter schools remove themselves from what is going on in LAUSD, I guarantee there will be hostility from their brothers and sisters in the union." But Vaughn Next Century operates with fiscal autonomy, hires its own staff, and sets its own payroll and budget according to its own internal negotiations. "I wrote the contracts," said Vaughn teacher and budget director Stanley Stern. "Am I supposed to strike against myself?". Instead the school established a new relationship between its teachers and the union. "We did and still do need them for technical assistance on legal and financial matters, staff development and legislative lobbying," says Chan. "We talked to our unions and asked if they could help us to be self sufficient and responsible. We said, ‘That’s your new role.’ They agreed."

At present, the Vaughn teaching staff are still within the five-year on-leave status outlined in the charter. Next year (1998) the question becomes more pointed. The district-union policy requires that the prior district teachers (now on-leave) must return or resign from the district. For many the choice is already made: "Almost all of us will resign and thus the need to belong to unions (which protect our return rights only) is no longer necessary," remarks Principal Chan. Discussion has now turned to the creation a separate charter school credit union that works with the traditional teachers union.

The school has broken away on health care benefits as well. After a battle with the district and the union over mishandled health benefits, Vaughn left the district’s health care program in 1996. Through competitive bidding, they contracted the LA County Office of Education that handles health benefits for 39 small school districts. The plan provides lower co-payments, more options and long-term disability, a benefit that the district doesn't offer.

The experiences of the Vaughn Next Century School reveal the benefits of high energy and perseverance. Charters schools in California must negotiate their level of autonomy and the issues that emerge are subject to interpretation. Each charter school’s administration must work diligently to surpass traditional district inertia. The bureaucratic procedures and traditional employment structure that bind a district can produce a conspiracy of 'good intentions'.

In the end charter school must be measured by their students' academic progress. At Vaughn student achievement based on test scores and independent evaluations has gone up 330 percent in the last five years. The charter school is a 1997 National Blue Ribbon School. The students, 97 % of whom qualify for the free-lunch program, and 87 percent of whom speak only limited English, are close to the national median in math and language, and the parents are happy that their children are learning in a model environment.

Click here to visit Vaughn Next Century Learning Center's own website.

Other Charter Conversion Schools:

Fenton Avenue Charter School, CA
Bowling Green Elementary, CA
Canyon Elementary Charter School, CA
Carlin C. Coppin Elementary, CA
Charter Community School and Extended Day Program, CA
Darnall E-Campus, CA
Fenton Avenue Charter School, CA
Garfield Charter School, CA
O'Farrell Community School, CA
Rite of Passage School, CA
Community Prep School, CO
Lake George-Guffey Charter School, CO
Options Public Charter School, DC
Bay Arenac Community High School, MI
Michigan Early Elementary Center, MI
Windover High School, MI
Prairie Creek Academy, TX
All charter schools in Georgia (21 as of fall, 1997), Hawaii (2), and New
Mexico (5)

September, 1997

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