Photo by Lisa Baca-Sigala
The half hour before the morning bell rings at Clifford Street School often finds the narrow, steep street that runs past the Echo Park campus into a chaotic scene, with cars, vans and trucks packing the road and kids darting between idling vehicles. It’s a common sight at Clifford and other schools as parents drop off their kids. But, the morning rush at Clifford today was relatively calm after the school began a Safety Valet Program. Vehicles were herded into a drop off lane in front of the school as a group of staff and volunteers wearing yellow vests helped keep traffic and kids flowing, said Principal Armineh Alexan. “It was quite smooth this morning,” she said.
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Our Lady of Loretto School, located on Union Avenue in Echo Park, will be celebrating its 100th anniversary on Sunday, Jan. 29 with an open house. Church Secretary Anna-Marie Steidl provides more details about the school and Sunday’s event:
This year marks our 100th anniversary of education in Echo Park. We are a K-8 elementary school. Our Principal, Michelle Sarmiento, would like to invite families of all faiths and socioeconomic levels. We are minutes from downtown Los Angeles. We will have refreshments, classroom tours, and prospective parents can meet with our dedicated teachers and supportive parents.
The open house will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Eastsider has written about the concern and opposition generated by proposals to allow charter school operators to take over classrooms at Elysian Heights and Micheltorena Street schools. But these are from the only L.A. Unified campuses that might end up having to share space with a charter. As part of an annual process, the school district is poised to offer space on about 80 campuses to charter schools in order comply with Prop. 39. The charter schools have until May to take the district up on its offer.
Here’s a sample of some of the Eastside schools that might be forced to share and the charter schools that will be offered the available rooms:
School
|
Rooms
Available* |
Charter School |
Albion Elementary
Lincoln Heights |
4 |
Endeavor College Prep |
Dena Elementary
Boyle Heights |
8 |
Futuro College Preparatory Elementary |
Elysian Heights Elementary
Elysian Heights |
3 |
Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts |
Franklin High School
Highland Park |
8 |
Los Angeles International Charter High |
Hollenbeck Middle School
Boyle Heights |
7 |
Media Ats & Design High School |
King Middle School
Los Feliz |
12 |
Santa Rosa Charter Academy |
Lake Street Primary Center
Historic Filipinotown |
2 |
Equitas Academy Charter School |
Micheltorena Street Elementary
Silver Lake |
8 |
Citizens of the World Charter School 2 |
Plasencia Elementary
Echo Park |
7 |
Equitas Academy #2 Charter School |
Click here for a complete list of schools that are being available to charter operators is included in a letter from Supt. John Deasy. The List follows his letter.
* Does not include rooms made available for offices
A group of Elysian Heights Elementary concerned about a proposal to share the campus with a charter school have organized a community meeting for next week. Elysian Heights Elementary is one of the many L.A. Unified schools – including Micheltorena Street School in Silver Lake and King Middle School in Los Feliz – that might end up having to share classrooms and facilities with charters school operators as required by law under Prop. 39. Becky Mazel with the Friends of Elysian, a school support group, said that parents and residents have been left out of the loop about district proposals to share space that could prove disruptive to the schools and neighborhoods.
“The community is so ill informed,” said Mazel, whose group will hold a Monday morning town hall on co-location, the term used to described schools shared by different operators. “There has been no opportunity … for public comment.”
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In the five years since she arrived at Micheltorena Street School, Principal Susanna C. Furfari has seen all sorts of improvements, from a new school garden and library to growing numbers of volunteers and parents willing to support the Silver Lake elementary. But earlier this month, Furfari learned that the school district had offered eight of her classrooms to Citizens of the World, a charter school seeking to expand in the area. Furfari said she has nothing against Citizens of the World but said sharing the campus with a charter would leave little room for a planned dual-language program, campus amphitheater and other initiatives.
“We have worked very hard to improve our campus,” Furfari said. “We have a lot to offer. But the goal was not to make it more attractive for a charter.”
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Image from Sacred Heart High School website
Perhaps the most challenging part of being a member of the Sacred Heart High School basketball team is the one-mile long journey the girls must travel to get to the Lincoln Park Recreation Center where the team practices. The girls endure the taunts and leers from men and motorists as they jog or walk during their 15-minute trip through Lincoln Heights, said L.A. Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke. He provides a sample of what the members of the Sacred Hearts Comets are up against after they leave the school grounds:
They will pass a barber shop where men will turn their half-shaved heads and shout. They will pass a dry cleaner whose curb is home to a man who reaches out to them from his cardboard box.
One minute, they feel the breath of charging pit bulls, the next minute they hear the whistle of a tattooed wolf, and eventually they will be confronted by the leering driver of a squeaking Chevy that has slowed to bounce alongside them. It’s always somebody like him, and, confronted with the sight of a group of young women walking through gang territory in the middle of the afternoon, he always asks the same question.
“Where you going, ladies?”
The athletes must travel off campus because the 105-year-old Catholic girls school has no gym. In contrast, two of the Catholic boys school serving the Eastside – Cathedral and Salesian – have relatively new athletic facilities, Plaschke notes. Plans to convert a former convent on the Sacred Heart campus have been postponed after a weak economy has plagued fundraising effort. School officials recently launched the first-ever Comets booster club to raise support.
Micheltorena Elementary in Silver Lake will be starting an English-Spanish Dual Language Program later this year and is holding a meeting for interested parents on Jan. 18. A recent Silver Lake Neighborhood Council newsletter had more details about the meeting and the school’s plans:
Silver Lake parents who would like to find out about the Mitcheltorena Spanish Dual Language Program that would be starting up in the Fall, are … invited on Wednesday, January 18th at 8:15 am and 5:00 pm in Room 7 for a information meeting. A District representative from the Dual Language office will conduct the meeting. Based on interest in the program, they will have either one or two kindergarten classrooms that will focus on developing [bilingualism] and biliteracy in English and Spanish. If you are interested, please contact Principal Susanna Furfari at Micheltorena at (323) 661-2125 or at susanna.furfari@lausd.net.
Schools in Echo Park and Highland Park have launched dual language programs in which students are taught in two languages. The program will be offered to both English-learning and English-speaking students with the intention of producing students who are bilingual and able to read and write in both English and Spanish.
Photo by Martha Benedict
The main classroom at La Casita Verde preschool at the base of Mount Washington is so noisy that sound levels exceed federal standards, preventing the school from qualifying for Head Start funds. The school, as The Eastsider reported back in September, raised funds to conduct a $5,000 acoustical analysis to study the problem. With that done, the school now needs to raise as much as$30,000 to make structural changes to cut down on the noise reverberating across the high-ceiling room, said Pat Griffith, chair of the Mount Washington Preschools, which operates La Casita Verde. “We do know we will not be able to reduce the noise sufficiently with a simple fix,” Griffith said in an email. “We think it will be a false ceiling to meet the Head Start criteria.”
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The supporters of Elysian Heights Elementary have organized a Saturday morning campus clean up following this week’s windstorm. They could use as much help as possible, according to The Friends of Elysian Heights Elementary:
Elysian Heights Elementary will be opened on Saturday (Dec 3) morning for a community clean-up after the big winds. The school doors will open at 7 am … and Friends of Elysian working along-side him. We’re also going to bundle the loose twigs and sticks for kindling to sell at our next garden day. Bring your coffee and kids in this massive clean-up effort!
Photo from EPE website
Echo Parenting & Education, which conducts weekly parenting classes in Echo Park, will be hosting their annual fall fundraiser at the historic Jensen’s Recreation Center in Echo Park on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. An EPE supporter provides the following background:
Founded 11 years ago by longtime Echo Park resident, Ruth Beaglehole, Echo Parenting & Education conducts weekly parenting classes in both English and Spanish, teaching parents an empathy led practice of child raising. Although classes take place regularly in Echo Park, the organization serves the Greater Los Angeles community, training and educating parents, preschool and elementary school teachers, social workers, and mental health professionals in how to support and nurture children integrating the principles of nonviolence with the knowledge of emotional intelligence and brain development. Currently, Echo Parenting & Education is offering parenting classes at Elysian Heights Elementary. Fall semester classes are in English and spring semester will be in Spanish.
Actor Amy Brenneman will be the emcee the fundraiser and Jackie Goldberg is attending as special guest.
Tickets are $60 and include food, wine, music and an opportunity drawing with great items such as four star hotel packages.
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