Palos Verdes Peninsula parents drop plan for charter school

Parents said the decision to withdraw the proposal Monday was prompted by community opposition, concerns about the nonprofit with which they planned to partner, and the likelihood that trustees would reject the petition next week. But supporters say they plan to regroup and consider their options, including possibly proposing another charter school in the fall.

"Obviously, it takes a lot to buck the status quo, and I think the status quo is obviously very powerful in Palos Verdes," said Michael Schwerdtfeger, the lead petitioner whose three children attend district schools. We "never wanted to do this to start World War III. We all wanted to do it because we thought, and still think, a charter school would be a great opportunity in Palos Verdes."

Supt. Walker Williams has previously said that if the charter were approved and met its 220-student enrollment target, nearly $1.3 million in state funding would follow students out of district schools and into the charter.

This would have come as the district expects to lose $3.7 million because of state budget cuts and has issued tentative layoff notices to nearly 60 teachers. Williams seemed pleased Tuesday that the proposal had been dropped.

"The district has expended a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources on this process," he said in a written statement. "All of us look forward to focusing on the real needs and priorities of the school district."

The debate over the proposed Theory Into Practice (TIP) Academy was the most bitter fight in the 12,000-student district since the early 1990s, when declining enrollment forced the district to close several schools.

Charters are independently run, publicly funded schools that are freed of many state and district regulations in exchange for increased student achievement. Although charter students would have still taken standardized tests, TIP proposed using "differentiated instruction," which recognizes that different children learn best in different ways, and values interdisciplinary and real-world studies.