Public School Might Score Private Help : Education: Merging the prestigious Crossroads School with Coeur d’Alene elementary could bring out the best in both, backers say.

Amid the pre-election crescendo of the Proposition 174 debate over subsidizing private schools with tax money, two Westside educators have proposed a radical reverse model: a privately funded public school.

The proposal, which would merge a prestigious private school with a Los Angeles public school, is the brainchild of Beth Ojena, principal of Coeur d’Alene Avenue School in Venice, and Paul F. Cummins, president of Crossroads Community Foundation, the fund-raising arm of Crossroads School in Santa Monica.

The merged schools, to be called Crossroads Coeur d’Alene, would integrate their staff, students, parents, programs and resources on one campus, but operate as separate financial and legal entities.

“This may be an idea that is too far out for its time,” said Cummins, “but we are going to ask parents to pay tuition to help others. It’ll require faith and goodwill. We’re hoping to combine educational quality with a degree of idealism for the benefit of the children.”

Integral to the proposal’s success is the willingness of parents who are seeking a Crossroads education for their child to pay about $9,000 in tuition for the hybrid school. Annual tuition at Crossroads elementary school is now $9,565, with an additional $600 fee for newly enrolled students, according to Shelley Stamm, admissions director of Crossroads elementary school. Although Crossroads does not keep a tally of names on its legendary waiting list, Stamm said, there are “three-inch-thick, three-ring folders” full of names awaiting entrance into each grade level.

Coeur d’Alene Crossroads would continue to receive funds from the state for each public school student, about $2,900 apiece, according to Ojena.

“Private school students’ parents would be donating a portion of their tuition to the school,” Ojena said. “But we believe there’s a group of parents out there that are community-minded and who want to educate their child in a real-world environment. If this works, it has enormous potential to be a model for public-private schools. Public schools are greatly underfunded and we have to look for other ways.”

Cummins said that parents of Crossroads’ students and parents of prospective students have responded positively to the idea, but he conceded that selling it “may be an uphill swim.”

“There is a fear (among parents) that if you put your child in with disadvantaged children, it’d divert from the needs of their children. But there would be a lot of individualization and working in small circles,” Cummins said.

To achieve the merger, Ojena and Cummins are seeking charter school status for Coeur d’Alene Avenue School, a pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade school of 200 students just north of Marina del Rey. If charter status is granted, Coeur d’Alene would continue receiving public funding from the Los Angeles Unified School District but be freed from state and local education regulations.

The state law governing charter schools, however, allows for no more than 10 charters per school district. Nine have already been granted in Los Angeles--seven on the Westside (including four in Pacific Palisades) and two in the San Fernando Valley. Six schools are aggressively competing for the 10th charter, and Westside school board representative Mark Slavkin said there is much concern among school board members over the Westside’s disproportionate number of charters.

Slavkin nonetheless praised the merger proposal, saying it has broadened the discussion about solutions to underfunded public schools.

“I think it’s a terrific and exciting idea,” Slavkin said. “I’d like to see more interaction between public and private schools. Unfortunately, the voucher initiative has set up this public-vs.-private dynamic. Theoretically, it’s possible that Crossroads could lease property that isn’t being used on Coeur d’Alene’s campus, put a line around it and call it a private school. The charter just makes it easier.”

If Coeur d’Alene gets its charter, the hybrid school would start in September with a 100-student kindergarten class, evenly split between public and private school students. The other classes would not be added until Cummins raised the funds for the project, which would require, among other things, two temporary buildings on the northeast side of the campus.

Aware of the competition for the 10th charter, Cummins said: “If we can’t do it via the charter route, then we will continue to explore ways to do a public-private mix, or a free private school so that disadvantaged students can benefit.”

Ojena and Cummins are aiming for a student body balance of 50% white students and 50% minorities. Coeur d’Alene’s current mix is 55% Latino, 18% African-American, 26% white non-Latino and 1% Asian. The school also has a large number of homeless children in attendance--about 17% of the enrollment, drawn from about 40 homeless families sheltered at the nearby Bible Tabernacle church, Ojena said. Students bused from overcrowded schools in Hollywood also attend.

Crossroads elementary school is less diverse; about 20% of the 223 students are from racial or ethnic minorities.

“While that’s fairly good for a private school,” Cummins said, “it doesn’t reflect the city’s diversity. Personally, I think it’s disadvantaging to go to school that’s as homogeneous as most private schools.”

The teacher-student ratio at Crossroads Coeur d’Alene would be only slightly improved, with one teacher and an assistant (for six hours a day) per 26 students, Cummins said. Classes at Coeur d’Alene now average 27.5 students, and each teacher has an assistant for three hours a day.

The proposal is rife with gaps, Ojena and Cummins readily acknowledge. There is no estimate of start-up costs yet, for instance, nor is there any definite backup plan if charter status is denied.

“This thing has all sorts of problems,” Cummins said. “But if it helps me further my position that the private sector should be sharing its resources with the public sector, then it’ll all be worth it. If this doesn’t fly, we’ll try again and try every option because we think the idea is revolutionary.”