The downside of superstar schools
It's no surprise that parents go to great lengths to get their children into the coveted classrooms. But other campuses suffer a loss from such lopsided enthusiasm.
| Carpenter Community Charter has almost 1,000 students, a waiting list and a controversy over parents who lie about their addresses to get their children in. But a generation ago, fewer than 50 of Carpenter’s 450 students were from the neighborhood; most were bused in. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times / March 11, 2013) |
You could say that Carpenter Elementary in Studio City owes its survival to students from other neighborhoods.
A generation ago, their presence kept the campus from being shut down, after local families fled to private schools to avoid Los Angeles Unified's mandatory busing program. By the time busing ended in 1981, fewer than 50 of Carpenter's 450 students were children from the neighborhood.
Former Principal Joan Marks spent years going door-to-door, luring locals back with the promise of a school they could be proud of.
Today Carpenter Community Charter has almost 1,000 students. There's a lottery and a waiting list — and brewing resentment over the suspicion that children from other communities are using fake addresses to attend, filling seats that ought to belong to neighborhood children.
The school has so many students now, there may not be room next fall for all of Studio City's kindergartners. "We'll be putting local kids on buses," said Principal Joseph Martinez, "if we don't get this sorted out."
What a turnaround from a time when most of its students