ABC July 2004 News

Belmont…The First Step

The Belmont Learning Complex has had a troubled past, without a doubt, but it has always been desperately needed to relieve student overcrowding in the heart of Los Angeles. The community applauds the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for its final vote to complete the school, redesignated as Central Los Angeles High School #11 and Vista Hermosa Park.

Granted there have been a total of three landmark votes to construct a school on the property bounded by 1st Street and Beaudry Avenue, this time we are confident that the school will be completed and opened. Why are we confident? Well, the tumultuous history of the former Belmont Learning Complex was due in no small measure to the school district’s inability to construct a school safely and efficiently. The end of the project’s roller-coaster history over the past seven years reflects the development of LAUSD’s school construction division.

Belmont served as a very painful wake-up call of the political controversies bound to occur if LAUSD didn’t professionalize its construction program. LAUSD, to its credit, has heeded the call. It has brought in construction, environmental and other experts. It is systemizing projects and processes. It has been successful in winning public support to pass three school construction bonds over the last seven years—Proposition BB in 1997, Measure K in 2002 and Measure R last March—bringing in more than $9.5 billion dollars (not including state matching funds) to develop a massive school construction campaign that was thirty years overdue.

LAUSD’s construction and facilities division is currently undertaking 283 school construction projects—totaling more than 151,000 new seats. Unfortunately, an additional 54,000 seats are still needed to meet population projections and provide relief from the overcrowded conditions that consign thousands of students to long bus rides and multi-track calendars that rob them of 17 school days a year. Both busing and multi-track calendars have devastating impacts on education outcomes.

We commend LAUSD for its progress in developing a professional construction division. We commend LAUSD for seeking to ensure that all students have enough seats in neighborhood schools on traditional two-semester calendars. We salute, in particular, LAUSD School Board President José Huizar, Members Marlene Canter, Marguerite LaMotte and Mike Lansing, as well as Superintendent Roy Romer, for their willingness to rise above the political controversy and allow Central High School #11 to be built safely and efficiently.

Unfortunately, Central High School #11 will only deliver a small fraction of the total seats needed in the Pico Union area, and many other communities remain equally overcrowded and underserved. In fact, the district is charged with creating more than 200,000 seats to ensure that students are provided quality local education. This is an enormous task.

The public has passed five school construction bonds—two state and three local—since 1997. In passing these bonds, we, the general public, have entrusted LAUSD to construct schools expeditiously and cost-effectively, because every inefficiency, delay or cost overrun subjects large numbers of children to patently inferior educations—an unconscionable state of affairs already endured for twenty-five years, with dire consequences to the children, their families and Los Angeles’ long-term prosperity.

Voting to complete the Belmont Learning Complex is an important step by LAUSD to alleviate overcrowding in urban schools and to demonstrate its ability and commitment to provide equal education opportunities to all Angeleno youth regardless of where they reside…but it is only the first step.

INS Raids in Los Angeles Must Stop
Town Hall Meeting to Take Action and Provide Information

During the month of June, local community clinics and schools were subjugated to unlawful raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service, units throughout Southern California. Despite the rumor that Asa Hutchinson, Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security, issued a memorandum on June 17, 2004 stating that the sweeps were outside policy and should cease, the raids have continued.

St John’s Clinic has reported two raids during the month of June, one at their South L.A. clinic and another at their Lincoln Heights clinic. At the Lincoln Heights clinic, a checkpoint was established and border patrol agents questioned many individuals, including promotoras and medical assistants. Subsequently, St. John’s has experienced an 80% drop in the number of walk-ins requesting medical services. In another incident, border patrol agents stopped and questioned individuals outside Norwood Elementary during a school graduation. Additionally, LAUSD has reported drops in attendance at some sites including Pomona, which reported that 39% of students failed to attend class as a result of the raids. Additionally, businesses in L.A. have reported drops in profit as a result of people staying home.

As a result of these discretionary, harsh, and unlawful raids, residents of L.A. County are afraid to leave their homes. The level and degree of fear experienced by the Latino and Asian communities is widespread and action must be taken to stop this unjust harassment. It must be clear that federal intervention is needed to ensure the health and safety of Southern California residents.

In response to this injustice, the Latino and Asian communities have organized a coalition of groups to address and respond to the actions taken by ICE officials. The coalition has designed a Town Hall meeting that will involve community testimony, elected officials, and a know-your-rights piece. The community must be aware that they have rights and the harassment suffered at the hands of the ICE officials in prohibited and unlawful. Moreover, elected officials must address the community’s concerns and represent those who have elected them to office. To negate the travesties that L.A. County residents have endured would be to rubber stamp that actions by ICE as legitimate.

The Town Hall Meeting will be held on Thursday, July 22, 2004 at 6 PM at Immanuel Presbyterian Church located at 3300 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Please click on the following link, TOWNHALL MEETING ON ICE RAIDS, for more information or call (213)389-3191. To view and/or sign on to the coalition letter to President Bush, please click here, ICE LETTER. Please encourage any of your constituents who might be affected by these raids to attend.

Coordinated School Health Program to Prevent Childhood Obesity

The Alliance for a Better Community (ABC), United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and its Coordinated School Health Taskforce hosted a forum to launch the Coordinated School Health Program for a family of schools in East Los Angeles– Dena Elementary, 2nd Street Elementary, Hollenbeck Middle School, Griffith Middle School, and Roosevelt High School. These five pilot schools were identified by the task force as progressive schools, eager to improve the health, well-being, and performance of its students.

The schools were introduced to the Coordinated School Health Model, which outlines eight components - Nutrition Services, Health Services, Counseling, Health Promotion for Staff, Comprehensive School Health Education, Family and Community Involvement, Healthy School Environment, and Physical Education – geared towards improving the health of students and the community. Embedded in the Coordinated School Health Model is the notion that improved health and fitness translates into improved academic performance.

The schools are charged with identifying a group leader, completing the School Health Index, a self-assessment of current services and programs, and developing an action plan geared at improving the health and fitness of its students and staff. Following the development of an action plan, the task force will connect the schools with public and private resources to support the implementation of the action plan. Some resources include Nutrition Network, the American Cancer Society, and 5-A-Day. Ultimately, these schools will serve as models for other schools and districts eager to enhance student and staff wellness and student academic performance.

ABC and United Way partnered with LAUSD to launch the school-based health initiative to further the goals enumerated in the Latino Scorecard on Health. The Scorecard allocated a grade of “C” to the overall health status of Los Angeles County, in part due to the unhealthy behaviors, poor nutrition and lack of physical exercise that result in an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. In the area of East Los Angeles, 30 to 36 percent of all students are overweight and of students within LAUSD, 67 percent of fifth, seventh and ninth graders failed physical fitness tests.

ABC’s work to improve the health of Los Angeles’ Latino population is made possible by The California Endowment, Kaiser Permanente, QueensCare, and the California Healthcare Foundation.

High School for High Achievement

This past June, the Alliance for a Better Community (ABC) in partnership with the Community Coalition launched a High School for High Achievement community campaign that has brought together more than thirty stakeholders in the African-American and Latino community to address our shared concerns for improving academic outcomes in our high schools. With more than thirty participating organizations, we are currently devising goals and strategies to advocate for creating positive change in Los Angeles' public high schools so that every student graduates prepared for entry and success in universities and the  21^st century workplace. Please contact Veronica Melvin at (213)896-9276 or veronica@afabc.org to learn more about Los Angeles' High School for High Achievement campaign.