Chartered Schools

On a recent tour of a New Hampshire boarding school, eighth-grader Diana Carrillo was surprised at the response when she told people she was from Santa Ana. "Oh, you're from Villa?" they asked. As in Villa Fundamental Intermediate School, a mostly Latino public school in a working-class Orange County neighborhood.

Six Los Angeles County charter schools are among 39 in California to receive new "certified" status, a process similar to accreditation aimed at ensuring these schools meet high academic standards. The goal is to enhance the caliber of charter schools as well as to broadcast that quality, said Caprice Young, president of the California Charter Schools Assn.

Challenging the balance of power in the city's public school system, a leading charter school organization is poised to wrest control of a failing high school from the elected Los Angeles Board of Education.

Deep into an important election that's attracted little civic notice, Jon M. Lauritzen provoked unwanted attention in the run up to Tuesday's Los Angeles school board runoff. He first ignored legal advice and voted against authorizing a group of charter schools in South Los Angeles. Then two weeks later, he switched sides, acting as the deciding vote both times.

In response to a surprise plan launched by a leading charter school organization to take control of one of Los Angeles' most troubled high schools, school district and teacher union officials are hurriedly trying to counter with reform plans of their own.

Two of the city's more successful charter-school companies sued the Los Angeles Unified School District on Thursday, alleging that the school district has failed to make space available for their students as required by law. Two separate suits, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Green Dot Public Schools and PUC Schools, assert that the school district violates state law that stipulates "reasonably equivalent" facilities for charter schools. L.A.

One of the city's highest scoring middle schools was denied its charter renewal Tuesday from the Los Angeles school board, meaning that the school must seek a reprieve from the state to stay in business. The Board of Education unanimously turned down the renewal petition from New West Charter School over concerns that the West L.A. campus' admissions process could improperly screen out low-achieving students.

In his continued effort to bring pressures to bear on the Los Angeles public school system, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad has committed more than $6 million to a high-performing charter school group to help it dramatically expand. The $6.5-million grant to the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools from Broad's education foundation, along with $3.

Signaling deep discontent and a possible spreading revolt among the city's public school teachers, faculty at two more Los Angeles high schools met this week with a leading charter school operator to discuss alliances aimed at breaking away from the school district.

A charter school teacher has been charged with several counts of lewd acts in connection with an alleged ongoing sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student. Daniel Velasco, 33, a teacher at one of the high schools in the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, is thought to have been involved with the girl for two months, police said. He was arrested earlier this month.