Vaughn Street Elementary School

The first dress uniform adopted by a Los Angeles public school is being introduced today at the Vaughn Street Elementary School in the city of San Fernando. The burgundy and gray plaid skirts and jumpers for girls and the gray pants and white shirts for boys are not mandatory, they are merely available to any parent who wishes to purchase them.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials Friday completed the first leg of their investigation into cheating allegations at a nationally acclaimed charter school, exonerating a fourth-grade class of any wrongdoing on the Stanford Nine standardized test. But the district officials were continuing their probe into test irregularities in two other classes at the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center.

Officials at Vaughn Street Elementary School in Pacoima formally submitted their petition Thursday to Los Angeles Unified School District officials in a bid to become one of the state's autonomous "charter" campuses. A day after faculty members voted to approve the petition--an ambitious proposal outlining what the school would do if it were exempt from state and local educational regulations--school officials delivered the document to the seven members of the school board, Supt.

Even by Yvonne Chan's standards, this was a media event. So, in the moments before Hillary Rodham Clinton's motorcade screeched down Vaughn Street, Chan stood silently in her office, with only a Secret Service agent by her side, reading "Chi Chi" a Chinese fortune-telling book. "Listen to the old wise guys," she read aloud in English. "Don't ask for money, but you can move people." Without missing a beat, she smiled broadly: "Tomorrow is great. Just wait until tomorrow."

Vaughn Street Elementary School, the San Fernando Valley's first charter school, Tuesday rejected another funding offer from the Los Angeles Unified School District, making a counteroffer of its own. The school will accept the current district offer only if the district agrees to pay the difference--about $150,000--to 15 elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school that are part of Vaughn's "cluster group," said Vaughn Principal Yvonne Chan.

Vaughn Street elementary school in Pacoima, the San Fernando Valley's first charter school, Tuesday rejected a compromise offered by the Los Angeles Unified School District in a dispute over how much money the school will get to operate. Under its new charter status, the school's administrators acquired much more control over its curriculum and finances, but ran into a quarrel over how much of an allowance the district should provide.

Calling a $202,000 monthly payment from the Los Angeles school district inadequate, the principal of the San Fernando Valley's first charter school said Friday the school's parents may refuse to accept it, and the school may be unable to meet its payroll next week. The comments by Yvonne Chan were the latest development in a running dispute between the school and the Los Angeles Unified School District over money.

Hurdling a major obstacle in its bid to gain independence from the Los Angeles Unified School District, Vaughn Street Elementary School and two of the district's unions Thursday announced a tentative agreement on how employees would be represented if the Pacoima school's charter petition is approved.

Pacoima: A school charts a new community course Compared to other parts of the San Fernando Valley, higher levels of violence and crime,poverty and unemployment have been a part of the landscape in Pacoima for years. But residents of one section think that changes at a local elementary school are helping to improve their immediate community. Before Principal Yvonne Chan came on board three years ago, Vaughn Street Elementary School was one of the 64 lowest-achieving schools in the state.

Vaughn Street Elementary School in Pacoima, the first in the Los Angeles Unified School District to adopt a voluntary uniform policy, will become the first to make it mandatory--as dismayed parents and officials have concluded that the optional plan simply does not work. The reason is fairly obvious: Kids think uniforms "look squarey," as Vaughn Street fifth-grader David Macias put it.

Vaughn Street Elementary School in Pacoima, the first in the Los Angeles Unified School District to adopt a voluntary uniform policy, will become the first to make it mandatory--as dismayed parents and officials have concluded that the optional plan simply does not work. The reason is fairly obvious: Kids think uniforms "look squarey," as Vaughn Street fifth-grader David Macias put it.

It began with a 10-year-old child expelled from school for ditching. When school officials turned down the frantic mother's pleas for another chance, she knew where to turn for help. At the Family Center on campus, she told her story to a parent advocate who agreed to intercede. The deal he made was that to get back in school, her son would have to take counseling and she would have to join a parenting class. In the sessions that followed, other tensions surfaced.

The Los Angeles Board of Education declined Monday to fund its independent charter schools at a higher level than other campuses, but awarded a one-time grant to the Vaughn Street charter school in Pacoima to help it through this fiscal year.

Calling a $202,000 monthly payment from the Los Angeles school district inadequate, the principal of the San Fernando Valley's first charter school said Friday the school's parents may refuse to accept it, and the school may be unable to meet its payroll next week. The comments by Yvonne Chan were the latest development in a running dispute between the school and the Los Angeles Unified School District over money.

Vaughn Street Elementary School, the San Fernando Valley's first charter school, Tuesday rejected another funding offer from the Los Angeles Unified School District, making a counteroffer of its own. The school will accept the current district offer only if the district agrees to pay the difference--about $150,000--to 15 elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school that are part of Vaughn's "cluster group," said Vaughn Principal Yvonne Chan.

Vaughn Street elementary school in Pacoima, the San Fernando Valley's first charter school, Tuesday rejected a compromise offered by the Los Angeles Unified School District in a dispute over how much money the school will get to operate. Under its new charter status, the school's administrators acquired much more control over its curriculum and finances, but ran into a quarrel over how much of an allowance the district should provide.

It's the kind of comic strip you'd find wrapped around a piece of Bazooka bubble gum. "Well, Johnny," the principal says. "You seem to have a problem with school." "It's not school I hate," Johnny wisecracks. "It's the principal of the thing." A few years ago, this wouldn't have gotten many laughs at Vaughn Street Elementary School. Not only were test scores pathetic, but turmoil was so fierce that the principal became a target of death threats. She stayed off campus for two months.

At 2 p.m. on Dec. 8, 1980, children streamed out of the bungalow-style classrooms at Vaughn Street Elementary School in Pacoima. Some were met by parents or older siblings. Many walked home in twos or threes. Though she didn't attend Vaughn, 7-year-old Lisa Ann Rosales was let off a school bus there after attending classes in Granada Hills as part of a school district desegregation program. She joined three friends for the two-block walk to her home on Herrick Street.

Pacoima: A school charts a new community course Compared to other parts of the San Fernando Valley, higher levels of violence and crime,poverty and unemployment have been a part of the landscape in Pacoima for years. But residents of one section think that changes at a local elementary school are helping to improve their immediate community. Before Principal Yvonne Chan came on board three years ago, Vaughn Street Elementary School was one of the 64 lowest-achieving schools in the state.