Charter school plan morphs into alternative elementary school
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

An alternative elementary school for kindergarten through fifth-grade students will open in the Las Virgenes Unified School District in the fall. Where the school will be located is still unknown, but the model of the school has already been defined by a local husband and wife team who were intent on opening the district's first charter school.

Brenda and Itamar Harari, owners of an educational research consulting firm in Agoura Hills, had a petition signed by 220 families and a plan to implement a charter school with a focus on "individual learning styles, compassionate communication and global education," the Hararis said.

The Hararis believed the charter school would fit nicely under the Las Virgenes district's alternative education philosophy, which has been expanded to include home schooling, online courses, independent study and a virtual school which is now being considered by state officials.

Since charter schools are funded through the same state mechanism of students' average daily attendance, the district stood to lose millions of dollars of revenue if a charter school opened, a school official said. The money for Las Virgenes students who switched to a charter school inside district boundaries would go directly to the charter school instead of the district coffers.

At its Feb. 27 meeting, the board of education voted unanimously in favor of an alternative elementary school. "An alternative education school is a public school having a special curriculum, which offers a more flexible program of study than a traditional school," the school report said.

The district has hired Brenda Harari to run the school. She said, "The school that so many of our community members are here in support of this evening will offer students and their families the opportunity to create a learning community that embraces individual learning styles, values social responsibility as highly as personal responsibility, and facilitates outstanding academic achievement via a variety of instructional strategies."

She said the curriculum would be based on state standards, but students would learn subject matter through "movement, outdoor education and inquirybased learning."

The basis of all instruction at the school would be "compassionate communication . . . where the needs of students and teachers are considered mutually," Harari said.

Students will actively participate in creating the curriculum, and learning will be based in "realworld problem solving," Harari explained to the board. Students will be allowed to work independently and collaboratively with others and will be encouraged to accelerate through some of the coursework while taking the time needed to master other subjects.

Agoura Hills resident Lisa Barnes will enroll her 5-year-old daughter Rachel in kindergarten at the new school. "Oh my gosh, I'm so impressed with Brenda and Itamar and their vision for this school," Barnes said. "I like the nonviolent communication aspect. It gives children more of an opportunity to learn in their own style. Not all children learn in the same way."

Board President Terilyn Finders hopes the school will be so successful it will attract children from other districts and increase enrollment overall.

Although board member Cindy Iser was concerned about the school falling under the "elementary school No. 9" planned for the city of Calabasas, she said she was excited to see how it would be developed.

"I'm proud of the fact that we displayed incredible nimbleness for a bureaucracy," Superintendent Sandra Smyser said of the swift negotiations with the Hararis and the compromise to run an alternative school with a charter plan.