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Beverly Hills school board hears emotional views
The dispute over non-residents of Beverly Hills attending the city's schools on special permits draws a packed house.
By Carla Rivera
January 13, 2010
At a packed and emotional meeting, the Beverly Hills Unified School District board Tuesday heard from dozens of speakers divided over whether to end special permits for students who live outside the city but attend its public schools.
The meeting at Beverly Hills High School pitted supporters of students holding so-called opportunity permits, who believe they should be allowed to graduate, against some residents who maintain that if the permit-holders want to attend schools they should move to the city.
Mark Forman, who has two children in the ninth grade who could be affected, said he hoped that they would be allowed to graduate.
"The first fiduciary responsibility for the board is to do no harm to students, and I hope they will act in accordance with that," he said.
But resident Susan Harp said parents of students who attend schools on permits, which are renewed yearly, knew they were taking a risk.
"I don't understand the sense of entitlement, hostility and guilt being thrown onto Beverly Hills residents," she told the board. "The answer is simple: Make the same sacrifice the rest of us made and move to Beverly Hills."
Whether to continue the opportunity permits has long been a contentious issue but moved to the forefront this year because of a funding shift: The Beverly Hills school district receives about $6,200 from the state for each student it enrolls. But it is preparing to become a "basic aid" district, meaning that it will use its property tax revenue to pay for schools rather than use state aid that is based on student attendance.
With the financial incentive removed, several board members argue that Beverly Hills taxpayers would be subsidizing the education of nonresident students if they were allowed to stay until graduation.
Permit families and their supporters contend that such "bean-counting" treats the children as commodities. They favor allowing all of the students to finish their education in the Beverly Hills district. Most of the permit students reside in Beverly Hills-adjacent neighborhoods such as Bel-Air, Beverlywood and Cheviot Hills and would otherwise attend schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Families whose permits are not renewed can appeal to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which is the final authority on inter-district transfers. Criteria for upholding or rejecting an appeal, officials said, include student access to special classes or programs, transportation problems in switching districts, healthcare issues and questions of continuity -- whether students who have been in the district for most of their academic careers should be moved.
The district plans to continue a variety of other nonresident permits, including those for district and city employees, ethnic and racial minorities and so-called legacy permits for children whose parents attended Beverly Hills schools and whose grandparents still live in the city.