The Los Angeles Board of Education voted 4 to 3 on October 12 to restore $2.2 million in funding to seven area charter schools, including Palisades Charter High School. ”PaliHi was one of seven conversion charters that had been seeking restoration of integrative funding from the Los Angeles Unified School District ‘that we received last year but were initially denied this year,’ said Gregory Wood, chief business officer. ”The charter schools’ motion directed LAUSD superintendant Roy Romer ‘to restore all Targeted Instructional Improvement Grant (TIIG) resources (integration funding) previously allocated to conversion charter schools for the 2004-05 school year, and urged him to conduct a full review to determine whether TIIG funding should continue to be be allocated to conversion charter schools beyond that.’ ”Pali, which became an independent charter school on July 1, 2003, will receive between $350,000 to $400,000 of the $2,218,223 that was assigned to the charter schools. It’s unclear where the money will come from or when it will be allocated since ‘the Board left it up to the district to decide,’ Wood said. ”He added that how Pali will spend the money will be determined after disctribution. ‘[The restored funding] creates a lot more flexibility to deliver and expand educational projects we’re looking to provide students.’ ”The schools and the LAUSD have yet to reach a ‘consensus’ regarding special education funding and facility, or oversight fees. ‘It’s an ongoing discussion,’ Wood said. ”Originally, funding was going to be denied because the district’s legal team determined that LAUSD is not legally obligated to distribute the funds to charter schools. Given the budget crisis and the need to cut $500 million for fiscal year 2004-05, the associate superintendant of specially funded programs recommended against the distribution. ”The three board members who voted against passing the measure probably took into consideration the district’s tight budget, said Roberta Benjamin, director of LAUSD charter schools.’They are really stretching resources,’ she said. ”Over the summer, $370,000 from Pali’s reserve funding was used to purchase text books for various departments, ‘as opposed to being constrained to buying books for just one department’ if the school was still a dependent school within the LAUSD, Wood said. ‘As a charter, we were able to take advantage of cost containments and prudent spending.’ ”In addition to Pali, other conversion charter schools that will receive funding include Fenton Avenue Charter School in Lake View Terrace, Granada Hills, Montague Charter Academy in Pacoima, Pacoima Charter School, Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and Vaughn Next Century Learing Center in San Fernando.
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