A dollars and sense decision
When Brenda and Itamar Harari, owners of an educational consulting firm in Agoura Hills, requested permisson last year to open a local charter school, Las Virgenes officials said they liked the idea but wanted to see the couple start an alternative school instead.

Both charter schools and alternative schools offer a unique educational environment in which teachers are given added flexibility and students learn at their own pace, but the district opted for the alternative school because it knew it could retain revenue from the state and maintain more operational control than it could with a charter school.

The decision to open the Las Virgenes Community Learning Center on the campus of A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas was greeted with mostly open arms. The new school meshed nicely with the district's goal of offering expanded educational choices for students- offerings that include home schooling, online courses, independent study, "virtual" classrooms and other innovative options.

Choosing an alternative school instead of a charter school proved to be a smart move for financial reasons. Because of the authority it retained over the school, the district was able to call the shots when expenses grew out of hand. The more than $400,000 needed to operate the 100-student school in its first year was simply too much to bear, and a far greater amount than the comparable costs to run a regular public school.

Although many school parents lamented that their fond leaders were being asked to step aside, the termination of the Hararis' contract was a perfectly sensible way to cut costs. In times of deep budget cutting due to the state's financial crisis, these are the kinds of moves we would expect the school district to make. Parents want to the district have champagne dreams on a beer budget, but the numbers just don't add up.

The Hararis performed a valuable service for the school, but now it's time to think about dollars and sense. Let's not flunk the test.