Amgen expects no negative affects on its earnings per share for 2007 from issues related to reimbursements of its anemia drugs, company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Sharer told investors. Speaking Jan. 8 at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Sharer said earnings per share of its Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agent products are expected in the low end of the $4.30 – $4.50 range. The company had previously forecast a guidance range of $4.13 – $4.23. In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced doctors would only be reimbursed for prescribing anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen in certain ways. At the conference, Sharer also disclosed that Amgen advanced 13 new molecules into development in 2007 and that 10 molecules are planned to move into mid-stage trials in 2008.

The plight of the nursing profession has been bemoaned for years now. There are neither enough nurses nor enough places for would-be nurses to be educated, has long been the complaint. Rather than go on about the profession’s woes, however, Reseda-based Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging aims to make a positive contribution to the nursing field through its Annenberg School of Nursing. The idea for the Jewish Home to open a nursing school has been in the making for eight years, according to Jewish Home head Molly Forrest. The catalyst for the school has its roots in the home’s certified nursing assistant program, she said. “We have always operated a state-approved program for training,” Forrest explained. “Some of those graduates in the home, they do work in a variety of settings. They have asked for a long time, would we help them advance in the field of nursing?” Because spaces for nursing students in public universities are few, while nurses are in dire demand nationally, the Jewish Home was moved to meet not only its employees’ needs for professional advancement by establishing a nursing school but also the challenge of a health care crisis. The home’s efforts were rewarded by the Wallis Annenberg Foundation, which donated $1.1 million to the school that now bears its name. Leonard Aube, managing director of the foundation, said that the recognized need for expanding the training of nurses factored into Wallis Annenberg’s decision to donate to the Jewish Home. “There is a dearth of qualified nurses,” Aube said. “The foundation has made several gift commitments to address this population.” Thanks to the financial contributions of the Annenberg Foundation and other donors, the nursing school opened on June 11, 2007, with a student body of 16. Forrest said that taking the project from conception to reality has not come without difficulty. “It takes time, a real commitment of staff time,” she said. “It costs real money. And you have to have incredibly good people because you are starting something from scratch. We are fortunate because of the philanthropic support. We are blessed with wonderful energy and professionally prepared educators. The Annenberg School has a board of supervisors , from local educators and schools in the community , that have helped us to do all this from the very beginning.” Annenberg School Director Marie Fagan had the task of creating the curriculum for the program as well as devising the policies and procedures to which students and faculty would adhere. Developing the program from scratch was daunting, recalled Fagan, who signed on in July 2006 to be director. “I’ve worked through the curriculum. It’s needed some tweaking here, some tweaking there,” Fagan said. “It’s like you’re kind of experimenting. It’s new, and you see ways to improve.” Through the curriculum, students are exposed to the fundamentals of nursing, obstetrics, pediatrics, mental health, pharmacology, anatomy and physiology, among other focuses, Fagan said. “The curriculum is pretty much the same information students need to pass the state boards,” she continued. Forrest believes the curriculum has distinct attributes that give students an edge. “I think the advantage to Annenberg is the focus on education and excellence and care,” she said. “We offer, through our nursing program, some extra help in communication, in the diversity of the workforce and our population and supervision and management.” The program is split into four terms “didactic learning,” clinical site experience, fundamentals and acute hospital experience of 12 weeks each. For acute hospital experience, Annenberg students visit Mission Community Hospital and the Encino campus of Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center. In the spring, there are plans for students to visit the Tarzana campus of Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical, a facility called Totally Kids and Kaiser Permanente clinics. Fagan said she spent the better part of the school’s first few months in session devising methods by which to best engage students. “For the first three or four months, the challenge is trying to always motivate the students, keep them interested,” she said. “Our students, they all work and go to school full-time…so it’s always a challenge to have them study as much as I’d like them to study, but everybody’s passing so far. That’s the good thing.” The success of this first group of students may be attributed, in part, to the small ratio of pupils to teachers. In the classroom, there are 16 students to one instructor. When students go to clinical sites, there are eight students to one instructor. In the skills lab, there are six students to one instructor. “I think, first of all, our small size is really helpful to us,” Fagan said. “At Annenberg, we are close with the students. We can focus in on their needs. We really can see what their challenges are. The students benefit. They get more specialized attention. I used to have to manage a program that had 400 students. You can’t know 400 students. I barely knew the [65] faculty.” At Annenberg, the faculty consists of Fagan, two part-time instructors and one full-time instructor. Another advantage is the fact that students work in such close proximity to an aging population of patients. “Every population of patients gives them an opportunity to look at patients through the lifespan development,” Fagan said of students. “Each of those sets of patients presents different problems.” The elderly tend to have diabetes, heart and orthopedic problems, allowing students to examine several medical conditions in one patient. Moreover, “They take a lot of medications and the students can see what each medication is and what body system it works on,” Fagan said. In addition to academic advantages, the program has financial advantages for Jewish Home employees who enroll, according to Fagan. “If you’re a Jewish Home employee, this is where it’s a benefit They get a certain amount of money to defray their tuition,” she explained. The program, however, is open to employees and non-employees alike. The first class of students, made up of both employees and non-employees of the home, is scheduled to graduate June 27. Students will receive a diploma and be eligible to take the National Council Licensing Exam. “When they pass that, they will have a license to practice as a licensed vocational nurse,” Fagan said. Fagan will soon begin scouting for recruits for future classes of students. Attending job fairs will be one of her primary methods of attracting more students. At present, there is already a waiting list to enroll in the program, which will likely get longer as Fagan has been fielding calls each week from people interested in applying. Over the next few years, the plan is to steadily increase enrollment, offering a part-time program to accommodate more students. Of her ultimate goal for the program, Fagan said. “I hope we’re going to make an impact by turning out a good product.”

“New job, new year, new culture, new environment.” That is the motto Barry Wolfman, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center’s new executive, has jokingly taken on for himself. That’s because Wolfman, named the hospital chief in October, officially stepped into his new role on Jan. 2. A New York native, who first settled in California in the late 1980s, Wolfman said that his first day in his new position felt somewhat like the first day of school. “I can’t say I was nervous, but I certainly wasn’t comfortable,” he said as his first day came to a close. “You get to meet a lot of people. People are judging you. It’s interesting. It’s always fun. I love meeting new people, so, so far, it’s been a great day.” Wolfman, the successor to Patrick Petre, who left St. Joseph in August to become the head of Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, has been a hospital executive for the past 25 years. “I’ve had the good fortune of being affiliated with the investor-owned sector,” Wolfman said. “That was with Tenet Healthcare, and I had the good fortune of being involved with a number of hospitals here in California as a regional senior vice president, and I was also senior vice president of our Philadelphia region.” Wolfman led Tenet’s Philadelphia area hospitals from 2000 to 2004, joining Kaiser Permanente as senior vice president of its Metropolitan Los Angeles Area in 2005. In that capacity, Wolfman oversaw a reported 850 physicians on staff, 270 affiliated physicians and more than 8,500 employees. Wolfman discussed how the goals he’s had for Tenet and Kaiser hospitals compare to the vision he’s in the process of forming for Providence St. Joseph Medical Center. “I think goals that I’ve always had are to create a great relationship with the medical staff, create a great relationship with our employees, get to know people, get them to embrace our mission, to do the kind of work that they’ve been doing for years and years and years even better,” he said. “I want to interact with our community and our foundation and our business leaders in the greater Burbank and San Fernando Valley area, so that they recognize what a fine asset we are.” The Business Journal spoke in depth with Wolfman about his first day on the job, the challenges St. Joseph faces and his qualifications to tackle them. Question: What about Providence St. Joseph appealed to you? Answer: I think, for one thing, the strengths of this medical center are its clinical excellence. You got great OB care, great stroke care, a great heart surgery program. We’re building the Disney Cancer Center, so we really look to focus on clinical excellence in cancer and cancer care. It’s got a bariatric surgery program, strong orthopedics and a very strong neonatal intensive care unit. I think the other thing that attracted me,Providence Health and Services System is really outstanding in terms of their commitment to patient care. Q: What enabled you to edge out the competition and be named St. Joseph’s new executive? A: I’ve been in the investor-owned hospital sector. I’ve been in the prepaid medical sector. I’ve been in teaching hospitals, community hospitals. I think I have a really good perspective on what has to get done. I’m very much a people person. I’m very passionate about what I do. I think it shows with the kind of effort that I put forward. Q: What challenges does St. Joseph face? A: I think the challenges that face a lot of hospitals are chronic under-funding and underpayment for health care services, challenges of caring for the uninsured and underinsured. We operate in an era where there’s continued downward pressure on, not just the hospital, but physician reimbursement. Staffing shortages,it’s no secret that there’s a nursing shortage. It’s no secret that we look to retain and attract the best and brightest in our community, whether they’re nurses or pharmacists or lab technicians or other health care professionals, both technical and non-technical, so the challenge is retaining really great employees. The challenge is growing and maintaining our volume of patients and providing great clinical services, always improving. Q: How will you tackle these challenges, the staffing shortage, for example? A: You have to create the right environment for employees to want to stay, so you retain employees at one level and then you try and certainly have appropriate and community-based compensation and good education programs for your staff. You have the right culture that you build with your board and with your medical staff so that employees want to work. Q: What are the cultures like at the various health systems,most notably, Tenet and Kaiser and now Providence,for which you’ve worked? A: Some areas where we differ is what we do with the money that we hopefully earn. Not all hospitals earn money. So many lose because of problems of compensation and uncompensated care. This hospital,we reinvest a large percentage of whatever we make back in the medical center. Not everybody does that. We have the Catholic mission, and that’s not that similar to every hospital. Q: It’s not often that we have the opportunity to interview someone of your stature the first day on the job. Describe your day so far. A: I started my day this morning just making some rounds, visited the physicians’ lounge, wandered around a little bit as a lost new employee. I met with one of our Sisters, one of the matriarchs of the organization this morning and gained her counsel and wisdom. I had a couple of meetings with my leadership team and the department manager team. I had two different meetings to talk to people and introduce myself, and I had a couple of meetings with the regional chief executive and the interim CEO to get caught up on a number of issues. All to end this evening with a dinner with a medical staff member. Q: What’s in store for you over the next few months? A: The next 100 days will be a time for me to listen and learn and begin to formulate a tactical plan, how to make our strengths even better, how to deal with any weaknesses we might have in terms of looking for opportunities to improve, so I think it’s just a time of reflection and to meet people. Q: Any last words? A: For people who report to me, I feel very privileged and honored to have been selected as the CEO or chief executive at Providence St. Joe’s Medical Center. It’s an incredible responsibility and something I take very seriously. Folks that are here hopefully will know that I will give it a 110 percent. SNAPSHOT: Barry Wolfman Title: Executive, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center Age: 50 Education: Bachelor of Science in Management from the State University of New York, Buffalo. Master of Arts in Health Service Administration from George Washington University. Most Admired People: I admire my wife. She’s been a wonderful mother and a wonderful role model. Both my parents. I’m very fortunate to have them both alive, and they taught me a lot about work and work ethic. And I admire my kids. They’re nice, young children and they make me proud. Career Turning Point: Being given the opportunity first to be a CEO of a hospital was a really good step for me. I had just turned 30, which I think is young to be a CEO, but it taught me a lot. Then, I had a series of promotions throughout my career where they’ve forced me to perform at higher and higher levels. Every change I’ve had has forced me to be a better manager and learn how to move organizations forward. Personal: Married, with two children.

Eggology is a punny place to work. If you do your job above and beyond expectations, you get named the most eggcellent employee of the month. Visitors to the company Web site get more information on a product by hitting the “Egg Me On” button. The guys in charge? Why they are eggsecutives, of course. With revenues growing annually at 20 percent, what Brad Halpern and his crew at the Canoga Park manufacturer bring in is not, well, chicken feed. Eggology started out selling its raw eggs to body builders and gyms before cracking other markets. Today it provides product to high-end restaurants and hotels, major grocery chains, bakeries, and wineries. Even day spas use Eggology’s products in facial masks and skin tighteners. “You look at the [grocery] shelves and there isn’t much innovation, especially when it comes to eggs,” said Valley native Halpern. Starting out in a 10-foot-square space in Vernon, Halpern now operates his company out of a large industrial park facility on Vanowen Street. A roomy and sterile environment contains the production line where employees and visitors are required to wear hair nets. The egg whites are delivered in drums, totes and tanks. When a second production line gets up and running in the next several months, tanker trucks will ship in the clear liquid. The line workers can fill anywhere from 3,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds of product a day, depending on the size of the containers. With the second line, capacity will reach up to 50,000 pounds. That Eggology can do those numbers shows that Halpern was onto something when he started the company in 1993. In those early days Halpern hand-applied the labels on bottles of raw egg whites, using a hair dryer to adhere the tamper-proof seals. His then-girlfriend (now his wife) took the bottles to gyms to sell to body builders who drink egg whites because of their high protein content. Originally, the egg whites were supplied by the father of one of Halpern’s childhood friends. Now all Eggology whites come from a variety of organic providers in Southern California. Safety First The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires testing of the egg whites every eight days. Halpern, however, has a more stringent standard of testing they are checked every single day for salmonella, e.coli and other illness-causing bacteria. A USDA inspector works out of an office at the Eggology facility, keeping an eye on the production line and the packing process to make sure it is all safe. “It’s like driving with a cop in the passenger seat,” Halpern said. Those aren’t the only pair of eyes watching. A rabbi drops in unannounced four to five times a year to assure that Eggology products are kosher. High-end restaurants and hotels using the egg whites also conduct their own audits of the manufacturing process. “We eliminate any risk while maintaining a high quality product,” said Carl Forshage, the chief operating officer. Wild Oats Markets was the first retail chain to stock Eggology, followed by Gelson’s, Ralphs and Whole Foods. When refrigerated, the egg whites have a shelf life of four months. “He’s taken a product and added some value to it,” said Jon Startz, of National Foodservice, a distributor of Eggology products in Southern California. Now that it is known there are profits to be made from offering a healthy alternative to eating an egg yolk and all, Eggology goes up against competing product from larger companies, EggBeaters being the most well known. “[Competition is] out there but Brad seems to have cornered the market, at least in our area,” said Gerry Van Nortwick, of Nature’s Best, a distributor to natural food retailers in the western United States. There is more to egg whites than guzzling them down raw or using them to whip up icing, meringue and chocolate mousse. Halpern said there are a number of uses for egg whites that he was unaware of. Wineries, for example, use egg whites as a clarifying agent. Bakeries apply egg whites to give shiny sheen to Danish and other baked goods. Rave Reviews Expanding the company’s product lines from the raw egg whites into consumables such as ice cream and muffins originated from the need to bring convenience to the consumer. In stretching out the product line, research at Eggology led to the Cool Cravings ice cream line and the Simply Sensational line of carrot cake and muffins. Halpern’s dog graces the bottles of Norton’s Naturals, a mixture of egg whites, salmon oil and oats created for pets. Because the five flavors of ice cream use egg whites and are all natural no stabilizers or gums are used and contain less fat and more protein. “The [Cool Cravings] ice cream is different, yet every bit as satisfying as premium, full-fat ice cream,” wrote a food columnist for the Oakland Tribune in an August review. “In fact, it’s better than a lot of $5-per-pint ice creams I’ve tried.” When Eggology sent Startz the Simply Sensational products, the distributor had a preconceived notion that taste would have been sacrificed by using egg whites but was blown away instead. Now when Startz brings the muffins and cake to retail outlets and restaurants, he will not say they are made organically and are healthy, instead relying on the good taste to sell itself. “This, by far, was the best carrot cake I have ever had in my life,” Startz said. “I can’t believe this is good for you too.” For people on the go who want that extra boost of protein egg whites give, Eggology developed microwaveable cups that take less than two minutes to cook. “We like to melt a little fat-free or low-fat cheese on ’em but they’re great as is and they could NOT be easier to carry and store,” gushed a review from May at the Hungry Girl website. The start of a new year is good for business at Eggology. With people making resolutions to get in shape, orders for the raw egg whites go up, especially for those delivered via FedEx. In the summer, when people are more conscious about how they look, orders take off as well. “If we make the customer happy, we have a customer for life,” Forshage SNAPSHOT: Eggology Year Founded: 1993 Revenues 2005: $5.3 million Revenues 2007: $8.6 million Employees 2005: 13 Employees 2007: 18

The 2007 residential real estate market was a year with a number of curves, gyrations and swerves. Entry level buyers (between $380,000 and $550,000) were squeezed out of the market for a brief period during the months of August and September though 30 year fixed interest rate loans were historically low at 6.5 percent. High end sales were relatively unbothered by the subprime mortgage debacle, given that most high end buyers have a substantial down payment and don’t rely as much on low/no documentation mortgages with low or zero down payments. Despite the temporary mortgage turbulence, prices still remain 1.75 percent above 2006 and are 4.7 percent below the record high $655,000 mark posted in June of 2006. Median sales values ended 2006 at $613,000, slipped to $610,000 in February of 2007 and rebounded above the $620,000 range at the end of the year. Overall, 2007 sales were down by 30 percent, which still makes this one of the best years in real estate history. Now, to consider median prices of typical homes in the San Fernando and surrounding valleys 10 years ago The region was bouncing back from a terrible recession and recovering from affects of the Northridge earthquake. Home values slumped from $245,000 in June of 1989 to $165,000 in 1997. So what’s in store for 2008? To get a clear picture of the local real estate market, one must look at local market conditions. A quick glance at the federal monetary policies could be of some value, however, indicators such as the local job market, the diversity of the local economy, population trends, mortgage availability, foreclosures, housing stock, government spending, seasonal climate and local consumer confidence are reliable factors to consider when determining where the real estate market is going. Key national indicators to watch: the 2008 presidential election, continued turmoil in the Middle East that will affect oil prices and the federal government and monetary policy maker’s decision as to whether inflation or a pending recession will pose a greater threat to the nation’s economy. There are hundreds of area residents with Adjustable Rate Mortgage loans that are due to reset to higher rates in 2008. Even as lenders and borrowers work to restructure loans to mitigate losses in this billion dollar business, foreclosures will continue to rise which will add to the inventory of unsold homes. With more homes to choose from, buyers will be more discriminate as they select a home of their choice. As a result, homes will take longer to sell and the sales volume will be 10 percent below 2007 levels. Key local indicators to watch: the entertainment industry has been a piston that drives the San Fernando Valley economic engine; a protracted Writer Guild of America strike coupled with a pending Screen Actors Guild labor dispute could push the region into a less than lackluster real estate recovery. The San Fernando and surrounding valleys are major profit centers for mortgage lenders. As prices soften in some markets by 5 to 12 percent, buyers will create a demand for mortgages. In response to the financial markets, government regulators’ and mortgage lenders’ own desire to make a profit, mortgage lenders will continue their policy of tightened lending standards while designing loan products to meet the demand of qualified buyers. Lenders will promote government funded/insured loans which are less risky. Loans with 35-, 40- and 50-year amortization will become more commonplace choices for area homebuyers. Mel Wilson is a realtor who has represented buyers and sellers for more than 29 years.

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Capstone Turbine Corp. sold out its 2008 production run of it new 200 kilowatt microturbines, the company announced. Chatsworth-based Capstone reached that mark with a $4 million order for the equipment from Russian firm BPC Energy Systems. Capstone begins manufacturing 28 of the C200 microturbines in September. The company has received orders for 42 units. UTC Power Corp. contributed $12.8 million in cash and in-kind services to develop the C200 in exchange for a 10 percent royalty payment.

A fire broke out in a new restaurant and nightclub in North Hollywood on Monday morning, injuring a firefighter and another person. The fire burned through the roof of The Bank Heist, a two-story building in the 5300 block of North Lankershim Boulevard, the Daily News reported. The business opened in October in a former bank building that had long been vacant. One firefighter suffered minor smoke inhalation and was treated at the scene, and the other person was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor smoke inhalation and burns, Ron Myers, of the Los Angeles Fire Department, was quoted by the Daily News.

As the New Year rang in, California became the state with the highest minimum wage. Effective January 1, minimum wage rose from $7.50 to $8 after rising from $6.75 to $7.50 last year following Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s September 2006 signing of AB 1835, which mandated the wage hike. Although California may now lead the nation in the amount of minimum wage it offers to workers, labor advocates question the adequacy of the pay increase, while those in the business community wonder what effect the new minimum wage will have on certain kinds of companies. Scott Hauge, founder and president of Small Business California, discussed with Schwarzenegger the response both businesses and the public would likely have to AB 1835 before it was made into law. Prior to January 2007, the minimum wage had not been raised in the state since 2002. “When the Governor put forth this bill, the unions had recently done a survey poll and found that over 70 percent of the population supported an increase in minimum wage, along with an indexing or COLA [Cost of Living Adjustment] provision.” Hauge’s group agreed to support AB 1835 without the indexing provision. However, even without a cost of living adjustment, he believes that it is possible certain industries could be adversely affected by the legislation. “As far as how is small business going to be impacted , the industries that will be affected the biggest would be the restaurant industry, especially because, in California, restaurants don’t give a tip-credit,” Hauge said. “Restaurants will be disproportionately hit.” Restaurants have a large number of minimum wage workers. Moreover, in this state, they are not given a tip credit, which would allow them to pay workers less than the minimum wage under the assumption that the tips such employees receive would compensate for the lesser wage. On the other hand, Hauge said that many industries will not feel the impact of the minimum wage hike because it is already standard practice to pay above the minimum wage. David Russell, director of the Family Business Center at California State University, Northridge, agreed. “An increase in the minimum wage may simply replace raises that businesses might have otherwise given,” he said. “Rather than give voluntary raises, some business may be forced to give raises. The government is forcing businesses to do what some small businesses would do anyway.” Most businesses, said Russell, would have preferred to decide on their own to give raises instead of having the government make that decision for them, particularly in a weak economic environment. For businesses with a significant number of employees at or just above the minimum wage level that are likely operating on relatively thin margins, Russell said, “An increase in the minimum wage is likely to put additional pressure on those margins and may force a price increase.” However, because the marketplace is so competitive, many small businesses won’t be able to raise prices, Russell went on. For those who advocate for laborers, this year’s rise in the minimum wage brings up a different set of issues. Before she described what her concerns are with AB 1835, however, Anastasia Ordonez, communications director for the California Labor Federation, discussed what she liked about the legislation. “We are very pleased that minimum wage is going to go up to $8 an hour,” she said. “That means 1.5 million workers in California are going to benefit from this increase. A lot of unions, low-wage workers and advocates helped make this a reality a couple of years ago.” But, Ordonez stressed, CLF doesn’t believe California’s minimum wage hike is sufficient. That’s because, according to Ordonez, a single adult who works full time would need to earn $13 per hour simply to cover basic expenses in California. “This is an important first step, but we think there is still a long way to go,” Ordonez said. “We hope a more long-term solution gets passed at some point linked to cost of living We still have a long way to go before people are able to get out of poverty.” Echoing Hauge and Russell, Ordonez acknowledged that many businesses have long paid above the minimum wage. But she said that many such employers are union employers. Greg Good of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, an organization that strives to better the lives and working conditions of area workers, expressed thoughts about the minimum wage rise that are in line with Ordonez’s. “There’s no question that an increase in the minimum wage is certainly a good thing for working people in this city or across the state, but it may be as or more indicative of how far we have to go rather than being indicative of any grand achievement,” he said. “We should be under no illusions or delusions about the adequacy of $8 an hour. Because $8 an hour is not a middle class income or even a livable wage, it underscores how far we have to go to ensure that this economy serves all working people.”

In September, Woodland Hills charter school Ivy Academia expanded to include high school students, creating an increased urgency in the school’s search for a local facility that can accommodate both its smallest and biggest students. Representatives of Ivy, a high-performing school with an entrepreneurial focus, say they qualify for state funds that would allow them to move into one of a handful of closed Los Angeles Unified School District buildings in the area. There’s just one problem. LAUSD has become a stumbling block as the school attempts to transition into one of these buildings, say Ivy officials. While the Ivy community staged a protest in November about its quest for a new facility, the struggle the school has undergone around this issue isn’t new. “For the last three years, we’ve been Gypsies. We’ve been in temples. We’ve been in churches,” Ivy Academia President and Founder Tatyana Berkovich said. “Schools should be used for schools.” While Ivy’s flagship facility is on De Soto Avenue in Woodland Hills, the school also shares a site with Sunny Brae Avenue Elementary School in Canoga Park. There, Ivy houses its first through third grade students in six classrooms that are half the size of typical LAUSD classrooms, said Ivy’s Executive Director Eugene Selivanov. Moreover, students at the Sunny Brae site have no area designated for sports and recreation and have to use portable bathroom facilities, Selivanov and Berkovich say. Also, “We can’t have a normal library. We can’t have a normal computer lab,” Berkovich continued. “Taxpayers are paying for the best, and they should have the best. They [students] need basketball [courts] and football fields and baseball fields, and they deserve to have big classrooms.” School officials say they approached LAUSD representatives for help but were rebuffed. According to Berkovich and Selivanov, one district official told them that they could not use the facilities they had in mind because the buildings were needed for broom storage as well for purposes of professional development and adult education. “They don’t believe there’s a need for new schools in this community.” Selivanov said. The facility Ivy has in mind has been closed for 23 years and sits on a site of roughly seven to eight acres, representatives say. It is around the corner from Ivy’s De Soto site, which houses their fourth through ninth grade students. If Ivy were to acquire the building, parents with children in both age groups would no longer have to make multiple trips to take children to and from school. “What’s frustrating is the State can give us $40 million to rehabilitate” the site in question,” Selivanov said. “LAUSD is not required to put in any money.” Proposition 39 and Proposition 1D funds would allow charter schools such as Ivy to access the funds needed to revamp facilities. To revamp a closed LAUSD facility, however, Ivy would need to enter into an agreement with the district. But Ivy officials feel that there is no government agency to hold LAUSD accountable for its role in the process. Complicating matters is that the school faces a state deadline later this month to begin the process of reserving the funds necessary to revamp one of the closed schools. “If our kids weren’t going to charter school, the district would have to open those facilities to them. What makes them different because they’re in charter schools?” Berkovich asked. “John Creer should make sure these facilities are utilized.” But Creer, director of planning and development for LAUSD’s Facilities Services Division, said that Ivy is simplifying matters. “The situation is not as simple as Mr. [Selivanov] would like to make it,” Creer said. “We’re a district that has abided by every principle of law there is. What we’re trying to do is exercise fairness with everybody out there in the charter community who’s made claims on or requested our space. Any claim that we have been unfair to them has no basis in fact or in law.” LAUSD Deputy General Counsel Jess Womack agreed. “The short of it is, we have a process that we have to go through in order to make schools available. That’s No. 1,” he said. “The second thing, the specific statute, Prop. 1D, starts with the premise a charter school actually has reached an agreement with the school district to rehabilitate a specific property.” However, no such agreement exists at this time, Womack said. He acknowledged that Ivy did approach the district “in an effort to reserve funding for at least one school here.” But the board, on the advice of counsel, decided not to enter into such an agreement due to the issues surrounding use of the facilities. While LAUSD has yet to enter into an agreement that would result in Ivy being allowed to rehabilitate one of its facilities, Womack said that the district will continue to work with the charter school to enable it to get the necessary funding set aside. Creer said that, by February, he would like to present the board with a master plan as to the long-term use of its closed facilities in the West Valley. “We’re constantly working with charters to help find space,” he said. “We’ve been doing everything we can do in our power to give them the space that we can.” But even if LAUSD allows Ivy to use one of the closed facilities, the charter will by no means be moving in straightaway. “There has to be quite an amount of rehab going on,” Creer explained. “That’s not an overnight process. It’s not as if they could occupy it tomorrow.”