Two weeks after spurning the expansion plans of one of Los Angeles’ most successful charter school operators, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s board of education reversed itself last week and agreed to grant Green Dot Public Schools the charters it had sought to open eight small high schools in the city’s Watts neighborhood. (“Leaders in L.A. District at Odds Over School Reforms,” April 11, 2007.)
Jon Lauritzen, a school board member who had voted on March 29 against the Green Dot charters along with two other members of the panel, asked for a reconsideration of that vote last week and changed his position to support the applications. The new, 4-3 vote would allow Green Dot to open its schools for the 2008-09 school year, a year later than the charter operator had sought.
Mr. Lauritzen, who is supported by the United Teachers Los Angeles, is in a runoff race next month to keep his seat on the board and was accused of blocking reform with his original vote. The earlier vote on the Green Dot charters had been 3-3, with one member recusing himself.
Green Dot operates 10 small high schools in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
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