Permit Students Fight to Stay in BHUSD

The Los Angeles County Office of Education plans to hear 30 appeals in June regarding the Beverly Hills Unified School District's decision to stop allowing out-of-district opportunity permit students admission to its schools.

There are 57 appeals now scheduled.

The LACOE denied three appeals May 25, said Victor Thompson, who oversees the appeal process as the LACOE  director of student support services.

The denied appeals were for three current eighth-graders in the district who sought permission to attend Beverly Hills High School in the fall, Thompson said.

In denying the appeals, which are heard on a case-by-case basis, the LACOE  stressed the natural break between eighth and ninth grades.

On May 4, four appeals brought by current BHUSD permit holders were approved and one other was denied, said Rick de la Torre, the LACOE public information officer.

Starting in the fall, the BHUSD will become a basic aid district, funded by property tax revenue generated from city residents. It will no longer operate as a revenue limit district, a status that allotted it $6,200 from the state for each enrolled student.

As a result of the Beverly Hills school board's decision, more than 200 students who had been attending district schools have been asked to attend private schools or public schools within their home school districts, board member Myra Lurie said.

Students on inter-district permits who will be entering their last year of middle school or last one or two years of high school in the fall were the only ones exempted, according to a BHUSD letter sent to parents. Students fitting that description are eligible for an opportunity permit until they graduate from their current school, the letter read.

The LACOE has heard 10 inter-district attendance appeals since the BHUSD voted unanimously Jan. 12 to deny permit applications and renewals.