April 4, 2013, 5:46 p.m.
About 50 parents on Thursday attended a presentation to help them decide who should run 24th Street Elementary School, a campus whose fate is in the hands of families who are trying to change the management of the school under the controversial parent trigger law.
Because more than 50% of the school's parents signed the petition, they won the power to force the change of their choice at the persistently low-performing school. Their options included replacing the entire staff and turning the Jefferson Park campus over to an independent operator outside the direct control of the L.A. Unified School District.
The favored option that emerged this week was a hybrid plan. A committee of parent leaders recommended that L.A. Unified manage instruction for students through fourth grade. Then, Crown Preparatory Academy, a charter school, would handle grades five through eight.
The 108-year-old school currently enrolls students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Crown Prep already operates on campus, using surplus space for its three-year-old middle school. Charters are independently managed and exempt from some rules that govern traditional schools.
"Crown is actually high-performing and the district was covering all our necessities,” parent Alicia Mendez said in Spanish, explaining the advantages of a collaboration. Parents asked the district and