A Russian-themed charter school may open its doors in Santa Monica by next year.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will host a public hearing on the proposed Hollywood Charter School on May 16. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the Santa Monica City Council Chambers in City Hall.
Alla Matusova and a group of supporters have filed petitions to open charter schools in several communities throughout the Los Angeles region. The group plans to open its Santa Monica school on Kansas Avenue.
Matusova said the group wants to open charter schools where there are large concentrations of Russian families. They chose to open one in Santa Monica because they hope to serve the large Russian community here.
“Many families are driving on the weekends to Los Angeles for their children to take Russian courses,” Matusova said. “But it’s not comfortable for these families because they would rather spend their time at home on the weekends.”
The school would teach traditional classes in math, science and the humanities in English, but children would be required to take at least two classes in Russian a week, Matusova said.
If the school opens next spring as planned, organizers hope to have classes ready for children from kindergarten to eighth grade. High school grades would be added as children graduate from the lower levels.
628,“High school is very important; it’s the last step toward independent life,” Matusova said. “The first year we will work with kids in eighth grade and then prepare them for our program. We will train them well. We want our kids to enter high school with great grades and solid achievements.”
Matusova said she helps run similar Russian-themed schools in Hollywood. The group currently has a daycare center and a private pre-school that teaches Russian to children.
Matusova and her husband operate a Russian newspaper called the Los Angeles Vestnik.
Charter schools are private schools that receive state funding but create their own curriculum. The Hollywood Charter school would be the first Russian charter school in the city.
The Santa Monica-Malibu school board will decide whether to allow the school in Santa Monica.
“We are still doing our due diligence on evaluating their proposal,” said school superintendent John Deasy. “It’s a situation where at the public hearing people proposing the school will bring forward their charter and gives us a chance to ask them questions about it.”
The official decision will be made public at the June 6 school board meeting at the HRL Laboratories Building, located at 3011 Malibu Canyon Road in Malibu.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 9, 2002. Read the original PDF.