Green Dot charter organization to take over Locke High School - The L.A. school board also decides to spend up to $10 million to repair its computerized payroll system, which has been plagued by errors.

Leaders of the teachers union said they would file a grievance to block the transfer on grounds that the decision violates the teachers' labor agreement and state law.

The board's 5-2 decision to hand control to Green Dot Public Schools in the fall of 2008 followed an impassioned debate among board members, supporters and opponents that lasted more than three hours.

"Today is about historic accountability," said Bruce Smith, an English teacher at Locke who gathered signatures for the Green Dot petition. "Finally a day of reckoning has come. . . . Real change is coming to Locke High School."

On another issue that has pitted the teachers union against district officials -- a new computerized payroll system beset for months with problems -- the board voted to bring in an outside firm to help fix the so-far intractable technical foul-ups. The one-year contract, for up to $10 million, is the latest move by district leaders desperate to end a debacle that has left thousands of teachers and other employees underpaid, overpaid or unpaid. This month, 3,826 teachers and other staff had paycheck problems, a total similar to last month's. Citing teacher distrust in the new system, district officials also said they have postponed a plan to recoup nearly $45 million in overpayments.

But it was the future of Locke that dominated the board's deliberations.

Locke ranks among the lowest-performing schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District and in the state. In 2005, 332 students graduated from a class that, as ninth-graders, had 1,318. Only 143 students qualified for admission to the University of California and California State University systems.

For years, the school has failed to meet state performance benchmarks, with most students posting scores of "below basic" or "far below basic" on standardized tests.

"I came to a point at which I said if we have to make a deal with the devil to change our situation, I'm ready to," said Arturo Ybarra, head of the Watts/Century Latino Organization, an area advocacy group, adding that he had taken his daughter out of Locke because he considered it unsafe. "Fortunately, we didn't have to deal with the devil to do that."