PTA Care Programs Praised in U.S. Survey : Service: The group was the only one of 13 praised in a national study on volunteerism to have unpaid workers overseeing doctors and dentists.

Felix Bonilla said he couldn’t believe his eyes when he put on his first pair of glasses at the PTA-run health center in Pacoima three years ago.

“Everything looked bigger,” recalled the Valerio Street School third-grader during a recent eye exam at the center. “I didn’t even recognize myself.”

Down the hall, in a crowded waiting room decorated with pictures of the U.S. presidents, Liseli Flores, 15, waited for a root canal. “It started hurting two months ago,” said the North Hollywood High School sophomore, pointing to her jaw.

Felix and Liseli are two of the several thousand students whose health care is provided each year by the San Fernando Valley’s 31st District Parent Teacher Student Assn. The nonprofit group was recently named as one of 13 exemplary volunteer programs nationwide by the National Research Council following an 18-month study mandated by Congress.

The Valley PTSA was the only one among the groups cited to have volunteers overseeing professional employees, including doctors and dentists. The local chapter also employs teachers to provide low-cost child care for 800 students at 17 Valley schools.

“They address and tackle the fundamental problems that get in the way of learning,” said Stephen Diaz, an associate education professor at Cal State San Bernardino and a member of the committee that conducted the national study.

The $290,000 national survey, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, purports to be the first comprehensive national look at the phenomenon of volunteerism in public schools.

In general, researchers found that volunteers are no longer limited to mothers helping out on field trips and fathers pitching in for Little League.

Since 1953, three health centers operated by the 31st District have provided low- and no-cost services for students whose families cannot afford private treatment. The centers are located at the Telfair Avenue School in Pacoima, the Hart Street School in Canoga Park and at 736 S. Maclay Ave. in San Fernando.

Last year, optometrists and ophthalmologists dispensed more than 1,000 pairs of new glasses to students; 5,000 students received dental treatment and 2,500 were seen by physicians.

“There really is no other place for these children to go,” said Donna Scott, manager of the PTA’s Telfair Avenue Health Center.

The dental and health clinics, which operate on an annual PTSA budget of about $250,000, charge patients based on the family’s ability to pay. The Los Angeles Unified School District provides the buildings and some of the health care employees.

Overall, income exceeds expenses, the national volunteers committee found. The United Way subsidizes the dental care program.

School nurses refer students to the health centers for eye exams, immunizations and other health-related care. Physicians at the PTSA health centers, including specialists such as cardiologists and orthopedic surgeons, can then refer students to treatment at nearby hospitals.

Parents can call to make dental appointments for their children, but there are waiting lists through May, health center officials said.

Although the 31st District was cited by the committee, the dental and health programs were actually created by the 10th District PTSA, which had jurisdiction over the entire 708-square-mile Los Angeles Unified School District until the Valley created its own PTA chapter in 1953.

“We’re the ones who started the clinics,” said Lynne Calkins, a member of the 10th District PTA.

The 31st District and the 10th District are believed to be the only PTA organizations in the country to provide such health services. The 10th District operates seven health centers.

The Valley’s 31st District was included in the survey at the behest of Manya Unger, a committee member and then-president of the national PTA. The 76,000-member nonprofit group, which has chapters at 171 Valley schools, is administered by a 16-member volunteer board of directors. Its volunteers contributed 20,000 hours during the 1987-88 school year.

The report focused on three aspects of the PTSA’s involvement: the Latchkey Project for children whose parents are not home after school and the dental and health care clinics.

Unlike the bulk of volunteer programs nationally, which tend to have smaller minority enrollments, the Valley PTSA services a student population that is 85% minority.

“We are serving children of the working poor, people who don’t make enough to pay for private insurance and who make too much to qualify for Medi-Cal services, “ said 31st District President Cecilia Mansfield.

“Many families cannot pay even the reduced fees, so we ask the local school PTA to cover it,” Mansfield said. “If they can’t do that, then we absorb it ourselves.”

The PTSA’s 8-year-old Latchkey Project was founded in response to the need of Valley families for affordable, supervised activities for elementary school students before and after school, 31st District officials said.

The group rented space in school buildings, obtained state licenses and, with the PTA’s lobbying, passed legislation in California to make state funds available for latchkey centers.

The program is offered for fees ranging from $40 to $60 a week, though a quarter of the children are subsidized, said Harold Kuhn, the latchkey program’s executive director. The after-school care provides time for homework, with tutoring if necessary. There is also some physical activity, opportunity for quiet play and nutritious refreshment.

“We set the fees as low as possible without going bankrupt,” said Kuhn, a retired Los Angeles elementary school principal.

Other groups cited in the study by the National Research Council included volunteers in Dallas who provide child care, counseling and tutoring that is intended to keep teen-age mothers in school. In Miami, retirees--including a veterinarian, horticulturist, carpenter and dog trainer--work on projects with small groups of “at-risk” students. The program has reportedly lowered absenteeism and boosted test scores.

But, in an era of financially strapped public schools when former President Ronald Reagan and President Bush have espoused volunteerism to help bridge the gap in government funding for social programs, the group also sounded a cautionary note: “Neither school administrators nor the volunteer coordinators believed that any massive infusion of volunteers could make up the shortcomings of an under-funded, poorly run education system.”

The committee found that 1.3 million people were expected to participate as school volunteers in 1987, the most recent year for which figures were available. Volunteers were found in 47,300, or 60%, of the nation’s elementary and secondary public schools. The most significant growth in volunteers occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, the report said.

Dr. Poppy The said she works five days a week for the PTSA dental program at wages far below what she could earn in private practice. But she continues the work, which normally includes about 20 students a day, because “I love children.”

Her boss, Dr. Robert Taylor, said he considers the dentists who work in the program volunteers because of the relatively low fees they earn. Taylor has directed both the 10th and 31st district dental programs since 1953.

“With the influx of immigrant students from Mexico, Central and South America, Southeast Asia demand for our services is growing,” said Taylor.

With only limited funds available, Taylor said the 10th District was forced to close two of its dental clinics earlier this year. Officials of the 31st District say they also could use more money to serve growing numbers of needy students.

Despite the plaudits for the program in the national report, Gilbert Sewall, who joined Diaz during the one-day tour of Valley PTSA programs, said he had serious reservations about the volunteers.

Sewall, who is president of the private Center for Education Studies in New York, said he is worried that the PTSA programs might drain money and other resources from academic pursuits even though “the services provided are terrific.”

“My biggest problems with the program was that the volunteers had very strong opinions about what schools should do and were almost dismissive of the central educational function of schools,” Sewall said.

Sewall, who said his concerns pertained to volunteerism in schools generally, added that he was uncertain that the PTSA was better equipped to provide health care and other programs than a public social service agency. The Los Angeles native expressed uneasiness about how far from traditional volunteer activities the program had moved.

Nevertheless, the volunteerism report concluded that Los Angeles Unified School District administrators and board members “consider the PTA Latchkey Project and PTA dental and health clinics a critical support system for educators and suggest that it may be necessary to redefine the role of schools in urban areas to include such services.”

Diaz, the education professor who observed the Valley program, recalled that a principal told him that his students “needed that additional support to even have a chance of being successful academically. This was a very positive service he felt was absolutely necessary to accomplish a good education for needy students.”