The schools are eligible for School Improvement Grants (SIG) money that can result in $2 million a year for five years if the school administrators decide to implement one of seven school models that will help improve their scores.

The issue was brought up at the first LA Unified School Board meeting of the school year on Tuesday. Board members also discussed whether they need to intervene with the five traditional schools that are run by Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (and are not charter schools), as well as the six other charter schools that they oversee in the district.

The surprise is that a few of them named on the list are notable and previously celebrated schools as far as past achievements, yet some of them have been identified as low performing since 2010.

The traditional district schools are:

• 107th Street Elementary
• Annalee Avenue Elementary
• Augustus F. Hawkins High School-A Critical Design and Gaming School
• Barton Hill Elementary
• Cabrillo Avenue Elementary
• Daniel Webster Middle
• Dr. Owen Lloyd Knox Elementary
• Edwin Markham Middle
• Florence Griffth Joyner Elementary
• George Washington Carver Middle
• George Washington Preparatory High
• Samuel Gompers Middle School
• Tom Bradley Global Awareness Magnet Elementary
• Westchester Enriched Sciences High School Magnets- Health/Sports/Medicin

The charter schools are:

• Alain Leroy Locke College Preparatory Academy High (Green Dot)
• Animo Phillis Wheatley Charter Middle (Green Dot)
• Los Angeles Leadership Academy High
• Lou Dantzler Preparatory Charter Middle (ICEF)
• North Valley Military Institute College Preparatory
• Wallis Annenberg High (Accelerated School Foundation)

The list from the California Department of Education only slightly differs with the low-achieving list from the CORE district ratings which also included Century Park and Hillcrest Drive elementary schools and David Starr Jordan and Dr. Maya Angelou Community high schools.

The list of 291 schools throughout the state of low-performing schools identify 20 in LA Unified, one in Los Angeles County Office of Education (Soledad Enrichment Charter High) and one in Long Beach (Jordan High). In Los Angeles County, there are 12 other school districts with schools named in the lowest 5 percent of state schools.

The state’s lowest 5 percent of schools was based on 2015 math and English assessment scores, graduation rates based on four years of data, the English learner indicator of the past two years, suspension rates over two years and college and career indicators.

Among the charter schools, the 3-year-old North Valley Military Institute is the only one of its kind in LA Unified and is championed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Wallis Annenberg High’s Accelerated School’s elementary school was named by TIME magazine as the “Elementary School of the Year” for its impressive approach to education, and has boasted years of 90-plus percent graduation rates.

Lou Dantzler Preparatory Charter Middle is getting a new building, and ICEF CEO Parker Hudnut said they have hired new experts in math that are joining the staff.

Among the traditional schools, the Augustus High School Critical Design and Gaming School has been noted for its innovation in computer science, while the successes at George Washington Preparatory High were chronicled in a movie starring Denzel Washington who played then-Principal George McKenna, who is now a school board member.

George McKenna

McKenna said he is unhappy with the low performance of a school where he gained his academic legacy, but said, “Our role is not to play ‘gotcha’ and I know some people have that perception. But if you have that perception you may think we’re in some way an intruder on someone else’s autonomy or freedom and they should be left alone. We need your help, we are the district and we have responsibility. If it’s our property, it’s our responsibility, it’s our kids. We have an obligation to insist and inform otherwise we are enabling or are complicit in negative outcomes and deficits.”

McKenna and other board members approved allowing the 14 traditional schools to apply for the SIG money, but they expressed concerns about how to help the charter schools that they were not voting on Tuesday with SIG applications. Those charter schools must apply on their own, and McKenna also wondered about the five Partnership schools that the district co-runs as part of the nonprofit started in 2008 by former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Of the 18 Partnership schools they now run in LAUSD, five of them are on the district’s list of 14. Four of those five have been on the list since 2010, and have received extra money to help improve their test scores. Partnership’s CEO Joan Sullivan was unavailable to comment.

The money used to help the schools could be something that must sustain their progress, said board member Monica Ratliff. She said, “The schools begin to rely on the funding for the purchased positions, and then they lose those positions and it causes a lot of heartache on those campuses. If they bring up achievement levels maybe they do need those positions, and then suddenly those resources are not there anymore, and you’re out of luck.”

According to a national report when the schools were helped first in 2010, generally 69 percent of the schools helped for three years saw an increase in math, but 30 percent saw declines and 2 percent had no change.

School board President Steve Zimmer said he wanted to know for sure where money was spent to pinpoint interventions to see how they worked. He said he supported the Partnership schools and wanted to help.

“As far as charter schools, we feel these things shouldn’t happen,” Zimmer said about the list including independent charters. “We are granting the level of autonomy from the ed code that charter schools get and then results should follow them and not get deeper.”

Zimmer noted that the school board took a “leap of faith” in approving Green Dot charter renewals and said their two schools on this state list indicate “this should green-light more collaboration and I hope that it won’t be punitive, and would be a lot of engagement.”

George Bartleson, chief of School Choice at LA Unified, said the district has helped with partnered schools in the past, and there was a time when someone from the central office was assigned to schools to help.

David Tokofsky, a former LA Unified school board member who works for the principals union, pointed out that the school board and superintendent should have more scrutiny of the charter schools that will be getting the extra $2 million a year, especially if they continue to remain on the state’s improvement list.

LA Unified originally had 31 persistently low-achieving schools on the list. Eight schools are still receiving money from past SIG funding, according to a report by Frances Gipson, the chief academic officer. The district has to submit their applications for the schools to the state by Sept. 8.

Gipson said schools are already “discussing the selection of the intervention model that will best benefit their school culture.”

LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King at the “Promising Practices” forum on July 23.

There were plenty of kumbaya moments at the July 23 “Promising Practices” forum, called by LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King, leaving charter leaders cautiously optimistic it can lead to a new era of cooperation.

More than 200 people from the LA Unified world attended the forum, which featured a series of workshops and discussion panels aimed at sharing best practices between the district’s charter schools and traditional schools. Another forum is planned for next spring, and while it is too early to tell, some charter leaders said they hoped the sharing would continue.

“I’m so excited about what Michelle King is doing, because for the first time since I was on the board, we have a superintendent who is saying, ‘Hey, we can learn from each other,'” said Caprice Young, CEO of Magnolia Public Schools and a former LA Unified school board member. “And it’s not like charters have the answer or traditional schools have the answer, it’s that we can all learn from each other. And she is supporting her internal innovators like pilot schools and magnet schools.”

Young said it is too soon to tell if there will be more tangible evidence of increased cooperation beyond the forum, but “good vibes are not to be underestimated, particularly in a place where there has been so much conflict. The fact that there are good vibes matters.”

Jason Mandell, spokesman for the California Charter Schools Association, said the focus on learning as opposed to politics was refreshing.

“I think it was a very healing event because it did provide an opportunity for teachers and the elected officials and the appointed officials to all focus on instruction and learning and say regardless of the issues that sometimes cause conflict, this is what we are here to do. This is why charters are here,” Mandell said. “They are here to innovate and to try and do things and share what’s working with district schools. There is so much time that could be spent on solving those problems that aren’t.”

Parker Hudnut, CEO of Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools, who attended the forum, also said it is not yet clear what will come of it.

“The teachers and I were pleasantly surprised when they got their session surveys back to find out that most of the people in the seminar were district teachers and not other charter teachers,” Hudnut said. “It was amazing that the LA Unified teachers came to us. Now there needs to be a follow-up. I’ve not heard what they are doing with what was heard at the sessions, or what people came away with, but there could have been a goldmine of ideas that were shared.”

Perhaps the crescendo of the good vibes at the forum was a speech by LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer, who spoke about breaking down barriers and working together. The speech turned heads due to Zimmer’s sometimes incendiary comments about charters schools and their proliferation.

“Steve Zimmer gave a wonderful heartwarming speech. Michelle King was very positive. The vibe in the room seemed very positive,” Hudnut said. “I see the day as positive, but LAUSD and charters still need to work to improve our relationship. It should be more of a partnership, not a compliance culture. How strong can that relationship be when one day we are working together to better educate children and then the next day we get a notice to comply that is pretty silly. There needs to be positive celebration that stands shoulder to shoulder.”

Yvonne Dunigan stands outside the school she worked at since the beginning.

Yvonne Dunigan walked the halls of the new $19.6 million school on South Crenshaw Boulevard and remembered when on that same street corner there was a Ford dealership where she bought her car 13 years ago.

She’s still driving that same car, but much else about the landscape has changed.

“I knew someday that this would happen and this school would be built, but it’s hard to believe it’s here,” said Dunigan.

For 17 years, Dunigan has worked as the school operations manager for View Park Elementary School, which until the advent of the new building had to be divided up into three different locations, including at Crenshaw High School.

She remembers protesting at the L.A. Unified school district with fellow parents to open the charter school, and then sending her son and daughter there. Working at View Park from the very beginning, she has seen children, now grown, bringing their own sons and daughters to school here.

Parker Hudnut where the time capsule will be buried.

“And now, we have this building, and everyone is just thrilled, and I’m feeling old,” Dunigan said.

View Park is part of the Inner City Educational Foundation Public Schools, which will be dedicating the new building—its first ever built—in the Crenshaw district of South Los Angeles, on Saturday with city officials, school board members and other honored guests.

For ICEF—which operates 12 schools in Los Angeles and Inglewood serving about 4,000 African-American and Latino students—it is a crowning achievement for a charter organization that was once on the brink of bankruptcy and facing closure. Dunigan remembers waiting weeks sometimes to get paid and worrying about whether the school she loved would no longer exist.

“Miss Dunigan is the heart of this school, she really runs the place,” said Parker Hudnut, ICEF’s CEO.

Dunigan, in turn, praises Hudnut’s commitment.

“I have to give the credit and honor to Parker Hudnut for making this happen,” she said, standing in the school now known as the ICEF View Park Preparatory Accelerated Charter Elementary School located on the first two floors of the school with Kindergarten through 2nd grade on the first floor and 3rd through 5th on the second floor. 

The middle school is on the third floor, and a few blocks away is the ICEP View Park Preparatory Accelerated Charter High School.

The 43-year-old Hudnut is now figuring out with the students what items and messages they will put in a time capsule that they will bury under the foyer of the front office. It will be opened 35 years from now when the building’s tax exempt state bond that helped finance the nearly $20 million construction project is paid off.

“I hope I’m still around to be here when it’s opened,” he said.

When Hudnut came to ICEF five years ago, things were dire. Five of their schools were locked out of their sites because rents weren’t paid and they needed new locations before school started in just two months. There was a $7 million payroll, 165 vendors clamoring for payment and only $15,000 in the bank account.

“My friends and fellow educators told me I was crazy to come here to try to fix the mess,” Hudnut recalled. “They said I shouldn’t leave my cushy job for this financial train wreck. But it was an amazing challenge, and I saw the dedication of the parents and the people who believed in educating these kids, and I tried to help.”

With severe cuts, and consolidating some schools, Hudnut got their schools to live within their budgets. He treated them like a business, while always keeping in mind the educational aspect. He came from LA Unified where he worked as the executive director for Innovation and Charter Schools.

“We looked at each component of the schools as a business to see what was working, and frankly some of the schools with only 150 students we couldn’t maintain,” Hudnut said.

Parker Hudnut and Yvonne Dunigan in a Kindergarten class.

Today, Hudnut heads ICEF, which prides itself as a leader in educating African-American and Latino students and preparing them for higher education. The accelerated learning techniques used for the students is based on a school model developed by Henry M. Levins at Stanford University.

Their test scores are still not where they want them. The English scores last year in elementary school had 35 percent meeting or exceeding standards, which was better than the LA Unified district score of 33 percent, but less than the state average of 44 percent. In math, the score was 21 percent,  less than the district score of 25 percent and the state score of 33 percent. In the middle school grades, the scores are 21 percent in the English tests, while 33 percent at the district level and 44 percent in the state, and only 6 percent meeting or exceeding standards in math scores, while the district is at 25 percent and the state is at 33 percent.

Hudnut said he hopes that getting the students all under one roof rather than in multiple sites will help their academics. He explained, “Yes, we are working to raise our results for our students to exceed the state averages.  One specific change that we have made is the addition of James Waller to our team.  He will oversee the View Park K-12 family.  He ran Gertz-Ressler High School for many years and he reports directly to me. I am excited about his addition to the executive team and we are expecting good things this year at View Park and throughout ICEF.”

The new three-story building on Crenshaw Boulevard stands on a plot of land that long frustrated former Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks. He tried many ways to get something substantial built there. Now, it will have a school that hopes to share its multi-purpose room with the local Neighborhood Council if it wants to hold meetings there, or offer it as a regular place for voting during elections.

“We want the school to be a part of the community,” Hudnut said. “I think they are now seeing the value of having a school here.”

The school offers a great view of the neighborhood, including downtown Los Angeles and nearby Crenshaw High School, where school board member George McKenna will now have offices in the rooms they previously occupied.

The Media Center designed by an interior designer.

The school has a computer lab, and nearly a one-to-one ratio of Chromebooks and computers per student. The library holds comfortable lounge furniture and new books from a fundraiser last year and was created for no charge by noted interior designer Bridgid Coulter.

Classrooms have interconnected doors so teachers can more easily work together. There is an art room, a science lab and something else they’ve never had before: a teacher’s lounge. The multipurpose room serves as a gym with lines for volleyball and basketball, a stage with an auditorium that can seat 500 and a cafeteria for the K-8th graders.

“The students have already taken a lot of pride of ownership,” Dunigan said.

Although the racial mix of students hasn’t changed much since Dunigan started working at the school in 1999 (with about 90 percent African-American and the rest a mix of Latino and white), the socio-economic ratio has changed dramatically.

“We used to have more children of doctors and lawyers and business people,” Hudnut said. “We had about 20 percent eligible for free lunch when we first started, and now it’s about 85 percent.”

The downturn in the economy hurt both the neighborhood and ICEF, so when Hudnut took over, he sought help from the philanthropic community. Former Los Angeles mayor and former California Secretary of Education Richard Riordan joined the board and helped raise money. Then, Hudnut made judicious cuts.

ICEF pared down the number of schools and students it once served. Hudnut received help from the non-profit charter group Ex Ed, and the Weingart, Ahmanson, the W. M. Keck and Parsons foundations, among others. Parents donated money, and some even shared their retirement accounts.

“I had to make hard cuts, like a favorite art program, and I love the arts,” Hudnut said. “I just told the teachers, ‘You are the educators, so you do the teaching, and let me figure out how to keep up the payroll.’ I don’t think anyone really knew how bad it was.”

And just as they thought they were close to being in the clear, they found a stack of unpaid bills, to the tune of $700,000, in the desk of a laid-off employee.

Parker Hudnut with the engraved shovel for the dedication.

“It seemed like we couldn’t get out from under it, and ICEF was getting a bad reputation for not paying its bills, but we have worked to improve that,” Hudnut said. “We couldn’t have done it alone.”

Hudnut credits the support of Pastor Timm Cyrus of the Angeles Mesa Presbyterian Church where they shared space for the school since the beginning. He will help make the dedication of the new building on Saturday.

There is a waiting list to get into the school, that now holds about 1,000. But they hope to grow, and ICEF has plans to start buildings for other schools soon.

“This is a true community effort that this school is here, so we hope everyone will come out to see it,” Hudnut said.

The public is invited to the open house, which starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the school, 5311 South Crenshaw Boulevard. They have an engraved shovel ready for the occasion.

UTLA did not respond when asked what topics might be on the table today, but the previous session saw UTLA adding to its demands to include supports for displaced educators, improved UTLA representation for substitute educators facing termination, clean and safe schools, improved grievance procedures to deal with unfair treatment by principals and increased school-based decision-making regarding Breakfast in the Classroom.

On the hot-button issue of salary, the district is reportedly still sticking to its offer of 2 percent, while the the union wants 10 percent.

Facebook faceoff for UTLA

Quite a few UTLA members were not pleased with the union’s leadership after it issued a press release regarding a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer for a fatal shooting with racial overtones that has sparked protests nationwide. The statement was a simple, short one, calling on “law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles and other cities to reexamine how their departments interact with people of color.”

In response to the union’s Faceook post about the statement, many UTLA members sounded off and voiced displeasure that leaders were weighing in on a national issue. One post read, “UTLA…Please take care of UTLA business and work on contract negotiations. You represent the teachers of LAUSD in SCHOOL matters….don’t make statements about other areas as our representatives.”

The number of angry posts was enough to prompt a response from UTLA leaders that said the officers “want to assure you that they are focusing on your top priorities in bargaining with the District.”

The post also included a statement from UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl, who wrote, “Regarding our statement on the Ferguson grand jury decision, UTLA has a long-standing policy against police brutality, and many unions within the labor movement nation-wide have expressed concern about the events in Ferguson.”

Middle school uses crowdfunding for new computers

Friends of Palms, a nonprofit organization that includes parents, friends, and families of children who attend Palms Middle School, have started an indiegogo campaign with the hope of purchasing 13 Apple iMac computers for use in the school’s outdated computer lab. They need $20,437 and as of this morning have raised $4,125.

“By helping us provide new computers to our library, you will greatly inspire and help our students to work more efficiently,” said Keith McKnight, a member of Friends of Palms, according to Digital Journal. “It will enhance their learning experience and enable them to complete their assignments on time.”

New $19.8 million charter school campus

ICEF Public Schools (ICEF), a network of 12 charter schools in South Los Angeles and Inglewood, announced this week that its flagship View Park Preparatory Elementary and middle schools will move to a new 54,000 square-foot campus currently being constructed with the use of $19.8 million bond issue from the California School Finance Authority (CSFA).

“ICEF not only stands for education, but it also represents an organization that has spent the last 15 years investing in the youth of south Los Angeles and Inglewood,” said former LA Mayor Richard Riordan, chairman of ICEF’s board of directors, in a press release. “The new View Park K-8 facility represents ICEF’s financial investment and commitment to its students and the community for the next 15 years and beyond.”

Guess who’s meeting the mayor of ‘Whoville’

About 200 LA Unified students are meeting Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti today, as well as “Whoville” Mayor Augustus Maywho, who will be helping a host of Whos light the Whoville tree at Universal Studios as part of its annual “Grinchmas” holiday attraction, according to City News Service. The attraction will be open at various times through Jan. 3.

Band and Drill Team Championships

More than 2,500 high school students from 32 LA Unified high schools are gearing up for the 40th Annual Band and Drill Team Championships taking place at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at East Los Angeles College.

“Our teachers and staff will have the resources they need and our students will have access to world-class facilities, which enables us to keep our focus on academics,” said ICEF’s chief executive, Parker Hudnut. “Permanent facilities also demonstrate ICEF’s commitment to providing excellent neighborhood schools to the families in the surrounding community.” ICEF stands for Inner City Education Foundation.

Currently, ICEF’s View Park High School and Middle School are located at 5701 S. Crenshaw Blvd. ICEF plans to acquire the current property and expand the high school, using $10.5 million in tax-exempt bond funding through the California School Finance Authority. The middle school will be co-located for the 2013-14 school year at Crenshaw High School.

An additional $22 million in tax-exempt bond funding has been approved through the CSFA. This will allow ICEF to develop a permanent facility for the middle and elementary school. ICEF say it wants to complete this project for the start of the 2014-15 school year. For the 2013-14 school year, the elementary school will remain in its current locations.