Plan for School Health Sites and Parent Centers Assailed

A proposal by a top administrator of the Los Angeles Unified School District to use voter-approved funds to create parent centers and health clinics drew fire Saturday from a school board member, who said the money should be used only to repair or improve school buildings.

Beth Louargand, general manager of facilities for the giant district, suggested in a memo last week that millions of dollars in funds from Proposition BB be spent on parent centers and clinics.

Critics contend that these programs do not fall within the parameters of the $2.4-billion bond issue, and that they would violate campaign promises to use the money for school building and classroom improvements only.

Supt. Reuben Zacarias said he had not “passed judgment” on the proposal, but said it deserved a fair hearing.

“Although our first priority must be the repair and maintenance of our schools, schools should have some flexibility,” he said.

But LAUSD board member David Tokofsky said Saturday that Proposition BB was intended “to repair classrooms for students, to maintain the schools for students and to build classrooms for students. . . . That’s all. That’s it.

“I don’t think health clinics and parents’ centers have any place in Proposition BB,” Tokofsky said.

“But somebody will send 80 parents into a board meeting in a jihad and say, ‘If you don’t have parent centers then you hate parents,’ ” he said.

School board President Julie Korenstein played down the proposal, saying a facilities committee on which she sits had discussed it last week but did not make any move to endorse or reject the suggestions. Before the board could vote on Louargand’s proposal it would first have to be approved by the superintendent and clear the Proposition BB oversight committee.

Among the suggestions made to the committee were:

* Allocating $10 per student at each district campus--including after-school children’s centers and adult schools--to provide for special facilities needs determined by the schools.

* An additional $10 per student for the Division of Adult and Career Education and each cluster. That money could be used for special facilities such as parent centers or health clinics.

* Using $14 million for community-sponsored projects such as playgrounds, new athletic facilities and multipurpose rooms.

A similar spending proposal was approved by the school board last year but was rendered moot when voters rejected a school bond issue last November. Zacarias said this new proposal could be viewed as a response to suggestions of the Proposition BB oversight committee and reform leaders to give communities more decision-making power on use of the funds.

While remaining noncommittal, both Korenstein and Zacarias said the proposal had merit.

Proponents of parent centers say adult education eventually trickles down to the their children as parents help with homework and take an interest in their children’s education.

Korenstein said after-school child centers are also a good idea.

“Is it so terrible that we should provide some place for a child to go after school so they have someone to protect them and give them cookies and a glass of milk?” she said. “Where are we going as a society if that is a terrible thing?”

Tokofsky said he expects the proposal to come before the school board in a couple weeks.