Open Letter to LAUSD Board regarding Citizens of the World Charter School Corporation

A copy of this letter was sent to each individual member via email

March 11, 2020

Dear Members of the Board of Education:

I am an educational rights attorney and law professor here in Los Angeles. I am writing you regarding the Citizens of the World Charter School Corporation (“CWC Corp.”), an alleged non-profit benefit corporation that operates a number of privately managed charter schools authorized by the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”).

CWC Corp. is currently trying to occupy a portion of a public school, Shirley Avenue Elementary School, under the provisions of Proposition 39. I will not discuss the myriad flaws, inequities, and attendant problems associated with Proposition 39 in this communication. I do, however, want to ask you to put off any consideration of allowing CWC Corp. to move forward with its hostile occupation of a public school while they have seemingly repeatedly refused to pay their legally obligated bills to LAUSD.

As you know, charter school corporations utilizing Proposition 39 to force their hostile occupations of public schools are obligated to pay over-allocation fees in certain circumstances. CWC Corp. currently owes LAUSD hundreds of thousands of dollars in over-allocation fees. Before allowing them any further opportunities to continue operating in bad faith, LAUSD should collect all payments past due and obtain written assurances from CWC Corp. that they will pay their obligations in the future.

Children in Los Angeles public schools are starved for resources. Our students go without school librarians, full-time health-care professionals, adequate access to services, etc. Meanwhile, just three years ago, CWC Corp.’s Executive Director Mark Kleger-Heine received a staggering salary of over $231,000.00 USD (see CWC Corp.’s 2017 Form 990 Part VII). This disparity of resources is by design, and underlies the purpose of the charter school industry. Public school students go without, while charter school executives collect fat checks.

As a member of the LAUSD Board of Education, I hope you will turn your attention to resolving this matter not only with CWC Corp., but with all of the charter school corporations that are in arrears in their over-allocation fee payments with LAUSD.

-rds

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Open Letter to LAUSD Board regarding Citizens of the World Charter School Corporation

Schools Matter: 2016 Week 22 Education Odds and Ends

First published on Schools Matter on June 1, 2016

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“[Mike] Feinberg’s fumbling rhetoric and transparent body language cannot conceal the condescending corporate paternalism that is a defining characteristic of KIPP’s abusive corporate reform school testing camps.” — Professor James Horn

Dr. Horn's book just arrived in the mail. To read after my 2L year ends. @MismeasureOfEd #edreform pic.twitter.com/wIjpbBPGRI

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) April 6, 2016

A parent testifies about charter co-location

Parent-Activist Karen Wolfe provides powerful testimony against corporate charter profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez's scheme to make it easier for charters to occupy large portions of public schools. Her piece is available here.

New Series Looks At Charter Schools

Jeff Bryant announced this on another site:

Over the next few days Capital & Main, an independent news outlet in California, will be looking at charter school expansions in the state and their impact on school districts, teachers, and students. Given some of the sources involved in the reporting, this should be really good. See the kick-off here.

A Charter With Its Hand in the Cookie Jar?

LAUSD Board Candidate Carl J. Petersen continues to expose the wrongdoing of Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS).

Steve Zeltzer: Connecting The Dots, Charter Schools, Privatization and Public Education In Richmond CA

https://youtu.be/0XymPX9wOqI

Teachers who are members of United Teachers of Richmond UTR and Vallejo Education Association joined with parents and supporters of public education in Richmond, California on May 28, 2016 to report on the continuing attack on public education through charters, testing and privatization.

There was also reports on the role of Ron Beller and the Caliber Charter Schools which wants to buy the Adams school site for $60,000.

Additional media:

https://youtu.be/FUER2mOFzEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk9n36VzQ14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWO_zxwxZQg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrmgFgfoFPw

Production of Labor Video Project

Schools Matter: 2016 Week 22 Education Odds and Ends

School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 illustrated!

First published on tumblr on July 28, 2013

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From the Communities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocations group on Facebook. The photograph is from a LAUSD public school with a Proposition 39 charter colocation on its campus. The privately managed charter corporation, with its extra funds donated by right-wing plutocrats, has resources to provide arts and other activities for students that public school students are denied. Here a performance at the charter school in which the children listen to a song about loving everyone—while the public school children look on through a chain link fence.

School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 is the tacit reinstitution of Plessy v. Ferguson. Join the struggle to end the lucrative charter industry and return education to the realm of public commons governed by the public.

School choice, it's the new apartheid. Proposition 39 illustrated!

Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school

Press release – Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On Monday, August 17, 2015, the first day of school, from 7:30-8:30AM, the Stoner Elementary School Community and local Del Rey neighborhood will be holding a protest against the co-location of ICEF Vista Charter School on the Stoner ES campus. Stoners parents are upset that the co-location has taken resource rooms including: music, special education, and language therapy among others. Local residents are upset because the co-location will bring traffic and safety issues to their neighborhood.

WHAT: Stoner Elementary Community is holding a:
      RALLY TO SUPPORT STONER ELEMENTARY AND OPPOSE THE CO-LOCATION
WHEN: Monday, August 17, 2015 at 7:30 – 8:30 AM
WHERE: on the corner of Stoner Avenue and Lindblade Street, 90230.
[map]

Media is invited to attend.

There will be speakers. There will be signs. There will be chanting and drums.

Most importantly, there will be calls for better schools, a safer neighborhood, and unity in the community.

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ICEF Vista Elementary, a neighboring school that is located two blocks from Stoner on the campus of the defunct St. Gerard Majella Elementary School, has taken classroom space at Stoner.  To many people in the neighborhood, ICEF is seen as ‘the school at the church’ and many ICEF families take pride that their school provides benefit to the local parish.  However, ICEF wants to expand and that means leaving the church grounds. Part of ICEF’s expansion plan includes co-locating at another campus to open up space at the St. Gerard campus.

ICEF is “stealing from Peter to Give to Paul”

Stoner ES parents are outraged that ICEF Vista’s will be co-locating this year and has taken set aside rooms that are used for music, art, parents center, and computer lab at Stoner so that ICEF can open up space on the St. Gerard campus to have room for an art room, parents center and computer lab.  ICEF is literally taking away resources from Stoner ES to give those same resources to the ‘school at the church.’

The Stoner parents and local residents are mad about the colocation and are fighting back

In February 2014 when the proposed co-location was announced, Stoner community leaders addressed the ICEF board and asked them to reconsider their co-location plans.    In March 2014, Stoner families and local residents sent over a hundred letters and emails to ICEF and LAUSD Boards urging them to not have the co-location at Stoner.  In April 2014, when a final offer was made for the co-location, the Stoner and local community held a protest in front of the ICEF Vista campus urging them to not co-locate.

The Stoner and local community will be holding a protest on the morning of the first day of school Monday August 17 to let ICEF families know about our concerns with the co-location. More protests are planned for later in this school year.

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WHAT DO WE WANT:

We want to let the ICEF community know the damage this co-location is causing and the harm it is bring to our community children. The Stoner parents are asking family of ICEF Vista to not support the co-location by selecting another educational option. We are encouraging the families of the 20 ICEF students who pertain to Stoner to consider sending their children to their local community school. We are asking parents from outside the area to consider their local schools or choose a non-colocated charter.

Adam C. Benitez
President, Friends of Stoner Avenue Elementary School
www.friendsofstoner.org

Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that has taken resources from home school

Stoner families to present petitions to ICEF Board to oppose proposed co-location at Stoner ES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Today Thursday, March 19 at 5 PM, parents of Stoner Elementary will be giving petitions to the ICEF Board at their monthly meeting to oppose the proposed co-location of ICEF Vista on the Stoner campus.

Over the past few weeks, Friend of Stoner Avenue Elementary conducted a petition signing and letter writing campaign to urge ICEF Vista to withdraw its co-location request for 2015/16.  Friends of Stoner will be presenting the petitions to the board and again asking ICEF to withdraw its co-location request.

*A PDF copy of the petitions is included with this press release.

WHAT: Friends of Stoner Elementary School booster club will be:

PRESENTING PETITIONS TO ICEF TO OPPOSE CO-LOCATION AT STONER 

WHEN: Thursday, March 19, 2015 at 5 PM
WHERE: ICEF Vista Main Office. Monthly Board Meeting.
5120 W. Goldleaf Circle, Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA 90056

_________________

ICEF Vista Elementary, a neighboring school that is currently located two blocks from Stoner on the campus of the defunct St. Gerard Majella Elementary School, has requested co-location space at Stoner.  To many people in the neighborhood, ICEF is seen as ‘the school at the church’ and many ICEF families take pride that their school provides benefit to the local parish.  However, ICEF wants to expand and that means leaving the church grounds. Part of ICEF’s expansion plan includes co-locating at another campus to open up space at the St. Gerard campus.

ICEF is “stealing from Peter to Give to Paul”

Stoner ES parents are outraged to learn that ICEF Vista’s plan to co-locate would to take set aside rooms that are used for music, art, parents center, and computer lab at Stoner so that ICEF can open up space on the St. Gerard campus to have room for an art room, parents center and computer lab.  ICEF is literally taking away resources from Stoner ES to give those same resources to the ‘school at the church.’

Stoner community collecting petition signatures

The Stoner parents are have been collecting signatures and handing out information in front of Stoner ES and ICEF Vista opposing the proposed co-location.  To the Stoner parent’s surprise, there are many in the ICEF community that are opposed to the co-location for various reasons and signed the petition opposing the co-location.

Some ICEF parents see the co-location as just flat out wrong.  Other stated that the reason they are at ICEF is they don’t want to be at Stoner. So, sending their child to the Stoner campus doesn’t make sense to them. Parents from outside the area said they would not be happy driving their children to a school across from the Mar Vista Gardens housing  projects, and would rather enroll their child at another school.

With opposition coming from both the Stoner community and the ICEF community, it is surprising that ICEF wants to continue down this path.

Co-location Protest at ICEF, more planned

The Stoner community is furious about the co-location and is working hard to oppose it. Last week, on March 10, Stoner parents held a protest in front of ICEF to oppose the co-location.  ICEF parents were present at the protest and were asking for a better school for their children. If the Stoner community is working this hard to oppose the co-location, and it hasn’t even happened yet, image how the opposition will be if the co-location happens.

If the co-location happens, the Stoner community has vowed to have protests against the co-location for the entire first week of school, and to have more protest throughout the year.

ICEF Facebook Bombarded with 1 star reviews

The co-location is also being opposed online. Stoner supporters have taken to the ICEF Facebook page to oppose the co-location. Supporters have bombarded the review section with comments opposing the co-location and 1 star reviews, bringing the previously 5 star rating down to 3 stars.

Stoner community documenting co-location woes

            The Stoner community is also online document the co-location struggle on the blogAdventures in Charter School Co-location available at http://cwcmarvista-co-location-stoner-lausd.blogspot.com/  Since the announcement of the ICEF co-location the blog has started to received hundreds of hits a day.

Petitions opposing co-location to ICEF board

Today, the Friends of Stoner booster club will present the 100 letters and signed petitions to the ICEF board and once again ask them to withdraw their co-location request. The petitions have been signed by members the Stoner community, ICEF community and local Del Rey community. A PDF copy of the petitions is included with this press release.

Media is invited to attend.
___________

WHAT DO WE WANT:

            The Stoner parents are requesting that ICEF Vista to withdraw it co-location request for space on the Stoner ES campus.

Adam C. Benitez
President, Friends of Stoner Avenue Elementary School

www.friendsofstoner.org 

Stoner families to present petitions to ICEF Board to oppose proposed co-location at Stoner ES

Charter Corporation CWC Mar Vista doled out 8 out of school suspensions last year—they serve Kindergarten and 1st Grade!

Charter Corp. #CWC Mar Vista doled out 8 out of school suspensions last year—they serve Kindergarten/1st Grade #LAUSD pic.twitter.com/CV66RraOeT

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) August 4, 2014

Charter Corporation CWC Mar Vista doled out 8 out of school suspensions last year—they serve Kindergarten and 1st Grade!

Noriko's Random Bits: The Schools Our Communities Deserve

Noriko's Random Bits: The Schools Our Communities Deserve: After a long day at school, I make my way to a local middle school where our district superintendent approved a co-location (more than one s...

Noriko's Random Bits: The Schools Our Communities Deserve

Tragic: CWC Corporate Charter schools pay executives $200K plus salaries, but too cheap to get crossing guards

Tragic. CWC Corporate Charter schools pay executives $200K plus salaries, but too cheap to get crossing guards #LAUSD http://t.co/3GAkKTP4Gs

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) February 12, 2014

Tragic. CWC Corporate Charter schools pay their well heeled executives $200K plus salaries, and hold lavish events for their staff, but they're too cheap to get crossing guards. This sad incident is the inevitable result of putting public money into private hands.

Discussion on fb

Tragic: CWC Corporate Charter schools pay executives $200K plus salaries, but too cheap to get crossing guards

Stoner Public Elementary School community to hold protest against corporate charter school co-location

Press release – Stoner Elementary community to hold protest against charter school co-location that is creating segregation and safety issues on and around campus. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Stoner Elementary community is mad and is fighting back against a planned expansion by the co-locating charter, Citizens’ of the World Charter Mar Vista (CWC), on the Stoner Elementary Campus. CWC has requested more classrooms and it is possible that they will take the Stoner computer lab, the speech & occupational therapist room, the book room and parent’s room. Taking anyone of these resources would devastate Stoner, a Title I school. The parents are also concerned that the co-location creates segregation on campus bring about many safety issues for their children. This week 168 signed letters from Stoner Parents were submitted to LAUSD this week pointing out their concerns regarding segregation and safety on campus. LAUSD has not responded. A PDF of the letters is attached. This will be the 3rd protest held against the CWC co-location at Stoner Elementary. WHAT: Stoner Elementary Community is holding a:       RALLY FOR STONER ELEMENTARY: better, safer school for our children WHEN: Friday, February 7, 2013 at 2:30 – 4 pm WHERE: on the corner of Stoner Avenue and Lindblade Street, 90230. [map] Media is invited to attend. There will be speakers. There will be signs. There will be chanting and drums. Most importantly, there will be calls for better schools, a safer neighborhood, and unity in the community. For more information visit: http://cwcmarvista-co-location-stoner-lausd.blogspot.com/ ___________ Stoner Elementary School has worked hard over the past few years to make itself a better school. We brought our API up to 811 and added two pre-K classes; We’ve had new murals painted beautifying our campus and old junk removed, providing more play space for our children; We’re looking to bring dual language and music programs to the school. Stoner is doing and looking a lot better, and I am proud to send my child to our community school, Stoner Elementary, but all the progress we have made might be derailed by the charter school co-location on campus. The co-location creates many problems for our children, parents and teachers including segregated conditions on campus, safety issues, and a lack of respect for our community. We have the following concerns: 1.      Our biggest concern is that since the two schools cover the same grades at the same location, they will be competing for enrollment of our community students. 2.      Stoner Elementary is Title I schoolwide. This means that large majority of our students come from an economically disadvantaged back ground. The co-location siphons key resources from our Title I school, depriving students of resource rooms, playground space, and library time. 3.      CWC is currently under-enrolled, yet has asked for more classroom space next year. It is possible that they will take the Stoner computer lab, the speech & occupational therapy room, the book room and parent’s room. 4.      The co-location creates segregated conditions on campus a.       LAUSD “…officials determined that the Braddock option [Main entrance] was not safe for the charter students.“? http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-karma-parking-20131104,0,2119984.story         i.      Why is the Braddock entrance not safe for CWC, but safe for the Stoner Children? b.      CWC threw a rock concert that could be heard throughout campus while our students were taking state standardized tests. CWC friends & family were invited. Even though they could hear the concert going on all morning and see the commotion during recess, Stoner students were not allowed to attend. The concert was a disruption and Stoner teachers reported the most bathroom requests ever during the event. Students reported having trouble concentrating on the standardized test, thus effecting the school and student’s future. 5.      CWC continues to endanger our students and has displayed a pattern of increasingly reckless behavior, including allowingsexual expression by CWC students a.       CWC allowed its parents to enter the shared school restroom in direct violation of posted signs stating “STUDENT RESTROOMS ONLY – NO ADULTS ARE PERMITTED IN THE RESTROOM” b.      CWC allowed sexual expression by students on campus: A Stoner parent found two CWC female students outside of class kissing, fondling each other and lifting up their shirts. When the Stoner parent reported it to the nearest CWC official, the parent was told that CWC would not do anything because CWC children are free to express themselves. c.       CWC has displayed a pattern of reckless behavior in regards to their entrance that has place Stoner students at risk.         i.      From Oct-Dec 2013, CWC had a combination lock on its gate and gave the combination to all CWC parents. This meant over 200 CWC parents had uncontrolled access to our students and campus.       ii.      After being ordered to remove the combination lock, CWC has been caught multiple times leaving its gate open and unattended for the convenience of CWC parents while disregarding Stoner student’s safety.     iii.      Recently, CWC officials were found leaving the gate open and unlocked to go on coffee run. 6.      Further lack of respect for our community and students a.       A CWC teacher had his class on the playground during Stoner student’s time. When the CWC teacher was asked to leave, instead of walking around the waiting Stoner students, the teacher marched the CWC students straight tough the group of Stoner Elementary Students, trampling the Stoner students backpack packs and sweaters. b.      CWC parents have harassed Stoner parents for voicing their concerns about the co-location, going as far as following Stoner parents home in an attempt to intimidate them and silence their concerns. ____________ WHAT DO WE WANT:             The Stoner parents are requesting that LAUSD deny CWC’s request for more classrooms for next year and are requesting that CWC’s co-location be terminated at the end of this school year. Since the co-location will continue this year, the Stoner parents are asking that LAUSD address the security issues immediately by rescinding CWC separate gate access, and requiring CWC to enter thought the main gate on Braddock. As a Lindblade Street, Del Rey resident, and Stoner Elementary parent, I invite members of the press to come and cover theRALLY FOR STONER. Adam C. Benitez Stoner Elementary Parent 11859 Lindblade St. Culver City, CA 90230 310-922-1176 adambenitez@yahoo.com

Stoner CWC Protest by Robert D. Skeels

Petition to Stop CWC Colocation at Stoner by Robert D. Skeels

Stoner Public Elementary School community to hold protest against corporate charter school co-location

Backed into a corner by a monster it helped create, LAUSD fights back against charter colocation greed

First Published on Schools Matter

Although the bungalows are used for after school programs, art classes, festivals and special education speech therapy space, according to the number of enrolled students at Micheltorena, the bungalows have been deemed empty and available for tenancy by any charter that requests them. — Lulu Wilson

The Los Angeles Times' LAUSD fights court order to give more space to charter schools highlights how the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has asked corporate friendly Judge Terry A. Green's "court to reconsider its decision. The school system is also preparing an appeal."

This is in response to the California Charter Schools Association's recent overreach in which they were able to obtain yet another privatization friendly court ruling that allows privately managed charter corporations to norm their classrooms as low as ten students per teacher, meanwhile LAUSD public schools "are crammed with about 50 students" in some classes. Of course, Howard Blume's biased article leaves this (and many other facts) out entirely. Cheryl Ortega was kind enough to address this issue:

The article also fails to mention the issue of smaller norming and how that could affect the home school. The issue of not counting the set asides has been the practice, if not the policy, since the inception of prop 39 in LAUSD.

Green's ruling will result in neighborhood children being displaced from their own schools and a further marginalization of children with special needs. Of course, we already know the charter school industry serves fewer students with disabilities to begin with, so it's no surprise that charters don't mind displacing those children from public schools either.

I left the following comments on The Times site:

These privately managed charters only care about their revenue streams. Displacing services, or even students from their own neighborhood schools, means nothing to the wealthy executives at the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), which continues to pull in tens of millions of dollars from right wing organizations like the Walton Family Foundation.

Meanwhile public school children are being crammed into smaller and smaller spaces, with less and less resources! The CCSA is on record for not caring about "severely disabled students, parent centers and computer labs." Californians were tricked by Prop 39, and now the fruits of that deception are coming to the fore.

Social Justice activists have fought against this charter colocation greed in communities like Echo Park and Silver Lake. What we need is create a large community push-back against the deep pocketed CCSA in every neighborhood. Any organization or law that puts revenues and executive salaries ahead of the needs of children and communities has to go!

I am proud to have been one of the community organizers who, alongside activists like educator Cheryl Ortega and many public school parents, have fought the occupations of our public schools by capricious corporate charter schools in the 90026 zip code. We exposed the illegal incursions by the Gabriella Charter Corporation and were able to convince the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council to vote against colocation by CWC Charter Corporation. We started a facebook support group for people struggling against heavy handed charters ruining their public schools called Communities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocations, please feel free to join.

Given the unlimited amounts of money the charter school industry has access to, it will always be an uphill struggle to battle against their efforts to undermine public education. That said, we must resist, and it's good sign to see that a school district and Superintendent renowned for kowtowing to the corporate charter sector, are, by necessity, beginning to fight back against the tide of neoliberalism and school privatization.

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ADDENDUM

A reader emailed me the following yesterday. It explains a lot more about the corporate judge mentioned above.

Judge Terry A. Green, the one who ruled that charter school students have more rights than public school students, is a long time right-wing Republican donor who has given to fringe organizations like Economic Liberty PAC as well as the Bush-Cheney campaigns, the Republic National Committee, John McCain, the California Republican Party, and others like Congressman James Rogan and Senator-wannabe Bill Jones.

Go to the link and look for Terry A. Green from CA/Pasadena to see. Sometimes he is listed as Honorable Terry Green and the Superior Court is listed. http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/qind/

In fact, he donated $500 to the Republican National Committee just 8 months ago, perhaps after reading the party platform on charter school/school choice expansion. http://tinyurl.com/d4uztel

Shouldn't a judge who donates thousands of dollars to organizations and individuals who blindly support charter schools recuse himself from these cases? Instead, he rules for—surprise—the CCSA!

Backed into a corner by a monster it helped create, LAUSD fights back against charter colocation greed

What is Prop 39, and What is the Colocation Fightback?

[click here if you can't hear this audio]

Politics or Pedagogy - KPFK - with John Cromshow and guest Robert D. Skeels. March 31, 2012 source: KPKF 90.7 Discussing the social justice struggles against Proposition 39, especially the efforts to save beloved Micheltorena Elementary School in Silver Lake from the deep pocketed Citizens of The World Charter Corporation.

What is Prop 39, and What is the Colocation Fightback?

Micheltorena Screening: The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman Micheltorena Screening

Micheltorena Screening: The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

Speaking truth to Eva Moskowitz and Gideon Stein's wealth and power

What is really, really outrageous to me — as a thirty year...forty years in this community, of advocacy — is that there has been a systematic exclusion of the leadership of this community. — Frances Lucerna (El Puente Leaders for Peace and Justice)

The illustrious Real Reform Studios bring us this brilliant short documentary showing the community of Los Sures' principled resistance against the vile privatizers running the lucrative Harlem Success Academy.



Pay close attention to hedge fund backed Moskowitz's advertising budget. That huge amount alone would provide arts programs or English Language Learner classes for many students. Also, see Karen Sprowel's testimony about how her special needs child was mistreated by the Stein and Moskowitz money making machine.

Please support the Grassroots Education Movement and Real Reform Studios. The work they do on behalf of social justice and public schools is invaluable. If you haven't seen (or even if you have) The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, arrange a house party showing now!

Colocation is a crime, let charters locate on someone else's dime!

Speaking truth to Eva Moskowitz and Gideon Stein's wealth and power

Please come battle New West Charter on Tuesday!

Join hundreds of community members, students, teachers and parents are going to City Hall in force to protect West LA from the effects of that the relocation of New West Charter could cause, namely:

1. Insane traffic at all hours of the day
2. Use of public funds to gain a rent subsidy just because they are near a Title 1 Elementary school
3. Possible continued underserving of the local West LA community and its students by a charter that doesn't answer to the community itself
4. Please examine the attached documents for more info!

Show up at City Hall (200 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012) on February 28, 2012 3:00pm. Be counted by politicians and take a stand against something.

Please call Councilman Rosendahl on his cell phone: (310) 367-0237 and remind him of his responsibility to his constituents!

February 22, 2012

Re: CPC-2011-1923-CU-SPR
       ENV-2011-1924-MND

To:
Councilman Ed Reyes
Councilman Jose Huizar
Councilman Mitch Englander
Councilman Bill Rosendahl

Cc: Len Nguyen

As a member of the WLA Neighborhood Council’s PLUM committee, I have consistently voted to oppose New West Charter School’s expansion into the site at 1905 S. Armacost in our modest, already-congested, West Los Angeles neighborhood. I live six blocks away, and not only will this project destroy the livability in the immediate vicinity of this location, but it will have severe ramifications for the entire, surrounding community.

You have to ask yourselves why the administrators and parents are so gung-ho about sending their kids to school in a WAREHOUSE…with no lawn, no cafeteria, no gymnasium. Why do they want to transport them to OUR neighborhood from various parts of the greater Los Angeles area?

Is it because they have a sweetheart deal whereby the state (we taxpayers) will subsidize most of their rent at this boxy, brick, shell of a building? Is it because it’s a block away from OUR neighborhood park which is already at capacity with daily, private school activities? Is it because it’s not far from our LAUSD high school, University High, and they feel entitled to muscle onto their campus to use THEIR gymnasium and THEIR other facilities?

Quimby funds that compensate us for the overdevelopment of our community’s up-zoned areas have gone into Stoner Park to enhance it for OUR local residents…not for a bunch of interlopers who eye it as a commodity they can come in and usurp.

From the first time the New West representatives came to a neighborhood council meeting, the administrators and parents have painted a rosy picture about high-performing students having a quality education while turning a blind eye to the negative impact they would impose on the surrounding community. We want ALL our neighborhood children to have a high-quality education. This issue before you is not a referendum on private schools. This is about the inappropriate use of a warehouse which is directly across the street from very modest R-1 houses, some occupied by elderly people who’ve lived in our neighborhood since the early 1950s.

We have an abundance of private schools occupying industrial space within a quarter mile of this location. We already deal with their traffic and cut-through traffic from businesses in Santa Monica that pass through WLA in huge, sluggish numbers. At least the other private schools were obligated to implement significant mitigation measures to ease the burden on our community, most importantly…school busing. New West Charter School’s answer to the question about busing is, “We can’t afford it.” Their answer to whether they could cut down the size of their student body has always been, “We can’t afford it.” Their answer to the proposal to divide their student body between two different sites is, “We can’t afford it.” New West at this Armacost location??? WE can’t afford it!

They SAY they will carpool and give bus passes to their students and have them ride bikes, but we know that’s not practical for parents and kids from all over town. There is no viable way for them to mitigate the impact of 875 students coming into this peaceful neighborhood and no way to mitigate the impact of morning drop-offs and afternoon pick-ups in this already-burdened community.

The enforcement measures they propose are tied to contracts between the parents and the school. Theoretically, if a student is not car-pooling, he can be expelled. Do you really think they’re going to expel high-performing students who help keep their API up, just because they don’t follow the transportation guidelines? Of course not!

Their proposed car-pooling figures are so unrealistic as to be laughable.  Their plans for queuing cars in our neighborhood are absurd and are presented as if they’re happening in a vacuum instead of in a heavily-trafficked neighborhood.

The fact is, the City has no mechanism for enforcement which could hold New West Charter School’s feet to the fire if and when they were to violate the conditions they say they’d agree to. Their demeanor at our neighborhood meetings demonstrates that they won’t even care if they’re abusing the privilege of situating THEIR school in OUR neighborhood. New West Middle School, at its present location on Pico Blvd., with a smaller-size student body has a history of hostility toward nearby businesspeople. And the best indication of future behavior is past behavior. They are not good neighbors now, and there is no reason to believe that they will be respectful, considerate, compliant or fair with the members of our local community. If you allow New West to set up shop in our residential area on Armacost, there will be no recourse for the residents and nearby business owners who will suffer from the congestion, the dangerous pedestrian and traffic conflicts, the noise, the parking on our streets…

What would our WLA neighborhood GET out of putting New West Charter School at 1905 S. Armacost Ave.? Nothing but headaches, inconvenience and ongoing dangerous situations.

Our residents wouldn’t be fighting a school that served our local community. They’d be more sympathetic if an under-enrolled, local, public school which was the “victim” of changing demographics, needed to bus public school children from other Los Angeles neighborhoods. But this project serves OTHER people’s children who live in OTHER communities and seeks to stuff them and their commuter traffic and their noise and their trash and their parents’ cars on back-to-school nights in the middle of a neighborhood that gets not ONE OUNCE of benefit from their intrusion.

I implore you to vote “NO” on this proposal. There may be a good location for New West Charter School’s proposed expansion, but it is not at the site they currently have their eye on.

Marilyn Noyes
WLANC PLUM Committee member

Please come battle New West Charter on Tuesday!

Communities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocations

"Colocation is eviction... It doesn't mean sharing, it means displacement." — NY State Senator Bill Perkins

A facebook group for schools, communities and families struggling against the divisive and inequitable law that allows private charter school corporations to seize and occupy space on public school campuses.

Communities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocations

The Truth about Proposition 39 Colocations

A look at the divisive and inequitable law in California that allows private charter school corporations to seize and occupy space on public school campuses. Special thanks to Cheryl Ortega for the Spanish translation.

The Truth about Proposition 39 Colocations

First published on Echo Park Patch

The Truth about Proposition 39 Colocations

"Colocation is eviction... It doesn't mean sharing, it means displacement." — NY State Senator Bill Perkins

Photo by Cheryl Ortega

Passed with the backing of the multi-billion dollar charter school industry, Proposition 39 is a law that forces public school districts to provide space for private charter corporations on existing public school campuses. The deceptively worded legislation demands our schools make any "free space" available to charters. In most cases this free space turns out to be computer labs, English Language Learner rooms, arts and music rooms, and other vital services that are surrendered. Once established on public school campuses, charters create a divisive two tier system which are frequently based on class and race. In addition to dividing communities and causing ill will, these charter corporations often begin to encroach more and more public schools space over time.

We saw this terrible scenario played out at Logan Street Elementary School, which has been collocated by the Gabriella Charter Corporation for several years. Not satisfied with occupying more space than they were originally allotted under their Prop 39, Gabriella seized Logan's auditorium over the summer of 2011 and turned it into their office for several weeks. Following this incident, they also annexed several classrooms that had just been painstakingly restored by the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council. In the process of taking over these rooms, Gabriella's staff removed all of the existing furniture, computers, and materials, haphazardly piling these items up in adjacent rooms, damaging both rooms and items in the process.

Photos by Lisa Baca-Sigala

The photos on the right were taken during these events at Logan. We have seen many similar incidents at other collocated schools throughout the district. The following online articles chronicle the Gabriella incursion:

Gabriella Charter Corporation further encroaches Logan Street Public Elementary School

Occupation of Logan Street School Rooms by a Corporate Charter Continues

The film The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman also exposes the damage that collocations cause, especially in terms of the charters taking over the best parts of school facilities for themselves while relegating the public school students to basements and other undesirable locations. New York communities have long been fighting the scourge of collocations, and community groups like the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) are on the forefront of that struggle.

Charters Are NOT Public Schools

Despite all the marketing hype promulgated by deep pocketed trade associations like the California Charter Schools Association, charter schools are not public schools. Instead charters are privately managed entities whose only claim to the word public is the fact that they drain public funds. Dozens of court cases have ruled that charter schools are not "public entities." Two well known examples include the following:

The California Court of Appeals (2007-01-10) which ruled that charter schools are NOT "public agents."

The 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals (2010-01-04) which ruled that charter schools are NOT "public actors."

Moreover, the US Census Department expressed difficulty in obtaining information from charter-voucher schools because the are NOT public entities.

Charters Exclude the Local Community

The private, unelected boards of charter schools ignore the needs of communities. More often than not charter schools boards have no educators or community members. For example, the fourteen member board of CNCA Charter Corporation, which was awarded the local CRES 14 campus against the explicit wishes of the Echo Park community, is packed with bankers and venture capitalists with no connection to the community or the families enrolled at their school. Likewise, Gabriella Charter Corporation's board has repeatedly refused to inform community members where or when they hold their board meetings.

The Truth about Proposition 39 Colocations