At least until fall 1996, the Edison Project, a private firm with an innovative plan for managing schools, will not be coming to the Ravenswood school district in East Palo Alto.
Edison officials notified the school district early last week of their decision to stick with the five districts, from Boston to Hawaii, that have already signed contracts with Edison. The firm will begin running one of the schools in each area beginning this fall.
The project, run by Benno Schmidt, a former president of Yale University, as well as other educators, will manage the schools, collecting the per-pupil funding the districts receive from their states or from property tax collections. The districts will continue to employ the teachers, and Edison will provide the complete curriculum. The goal is for Edison to make a profit, while at the same time running the schools for lower costs than the districts because of the efficiency that would come from having a network of Edison schools.
The chosen schools will have an extended day, including child care, and a longer school year. The company will provide a computer for every student's home as part of its initial capital investment.
Ravenswood administrators and some parents were enthusiastic about the idea and had been in the process of gathering information about it, but the school board had not yet approved a letter of intent to sign on with Edison.
Before that could happen, Edison West Coast representative Mark Silzer informed Ravenswood last week that time was running out, that other districts who had signed on must be given priority.
"We do still want to work with (Ravenswood) and have a partnership in the fall of 1996," Silzer said. "So we (aren't) closing any doors on them.
Ravenswood officials speculated that one reason for Edison's decision was the local controversy the idea had raised, especially among teachers, whose union feels strongly that privatization of schools may threaten their bargaining position, since Edison teachers would be required to work longer hours for a longer school year and compensation packages could get complicated.
Most observers agreed that more time to see the fledgling program begin in other districts would help Ravenswood make a more informed decision, and also build more support among more groups.
"They probably felt they needed more support. There was substantial opposition," said Ravenswood board member Bomani Siwatu, who said he is definitely still "open" to the idea. "One of the good things that's come through this process is it has opened up some dialogue on things we can do in-house," he said, with or without Edison, such as having a longer school day or year.
Many parents welcomed exploration of the Edison Project proposal and said they hope it continues.
"It should be said that parents generated the interest in the Edison Project," said Ravenswood parent Adrienne Phillips, who has four children in the district from preschool to eighth grade. "They simply wanted to know more about it.
"We have lots of solid programs in Ravenswood. Edison would have been one more solid program to me."
--Elizabeth Darling
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