A group calling itself Save Gardena High is apparently urging parents, staff and community members at the school to vote no on a reform plan authored by teachers and administrators.
A spokesman for the group, who gave his name as both Sean Renear and Sean Kennedy, said the group favors the school's reconstitution, a radical move in which all existing staff are fired and made to reapply for jobs.
"The patients can no longer run the asylum," Renear said.
The Gardena reform plan -- drawn up in response LAUSD's Public School Choice process, which let outside groups bid for control of 12 troubled and 18 new campuses -- was unveiled last month. Gardena High received no outside bids, so voters are simply voting yes or no on the internal plan. (Here's my story on the plan and its reception. A PDF of the plan itself is here.)
Renear sent out his press release on Wednesday afternoon, a day after the main voting period. Voters can also cast ballots on Saturday morning.
Renear said no members of Save Gardena High were comfortable speaking to me because they feared repercussions from teachers and/or for the safety of their jobs. The group consists of former and current administrators, teachers and parents, he said.
My questions to you readers are these: Have you heard anything about this group? Are you involved? Do you know anyone who is involved?
If you know anything, contact me at melissa.pamer@dailybreeze.com or 310-543-6606.
The press release sent by Renear is after the jump:
Save Gardena High, Vote NO on the Status Quo
Concerned Citizens Urge Voters to Reject Failure Agenda and the
so-called Public School Choice Plan
A Coalition of Gardena residents, Gardena High parents and former
teachers and administrators announced today their opposition to the
Public School Choice plan for Gardena High.
The plan offers voters, students and parents no positive proposal for
change at Gardena High. Voters should not be fooled - the plan is a
cynical manipulation of the system by some current faculty and staff
to avoid accountability for their failure to teach, coach, and mentor
their charges.
What's WRONG with Gardena?
Low Student Engagement - in addition to campus violence, and
absenteeism, student activities are under-enrolled and fail to serve
student needs.
Low Academic Achievement - Gardena's abysmal statewide test scores
qualified it as a "focus school" eligible for takeover. For example,
math scores are in the single digits in both Algebra and Geometry.
Gardena Students are not learning.
Lack of Discipline and Respect - school conduct violations and
classroom misbehavior interfere with academic and extracurricular
programs, and make the campus an unsafe environment.
What's WRONG with the Public School Plan?
Platitudes - The plan calls for implementing small learning
communities to improve student engagement and academic achievement but
those responsible have no intention of doing so. The same faculty that
promote the plan, vigorously opposed efforts to implement Small
Learning Communities in the past. The plan omits any accountability.
There are no consequences for failure. The plan omits any linkage
between student achievement and teacher evaluation. There are no
rewards for good teachers, and no incentives for bad teachers to
change.
Punishment, not Teaching - Although the plan gives lip-service to the
safe school approach, emphasizing a constructive discipline policy,
architects of the plan pledged to "violently oppose" a non-punitive
approach to discipline. Some faculty members have no interest in
teaching challenging students, and in 2007 alone the Deans enacted
1500 suspensions!
Disrespect from the Top - The plan asks voters to believe the same
faculty who failed to teach, who failed to mentor, who failed to
correct misbehavior are capable of implementing a positive program of
reform?
Former faculty and staff report a culture of disrespect toward
students and parents on campus runs deep among the faculty. At a
recent open house a teacher told a parent, "Your daughter will never
amount to anything." Coaches have been heard to call their players
"losers" out of earshot. Deans refer to students as "scum" and "the
Taliban kids."
Gardena High Needs Positive Change. Change we can believe in, teachers
we can believe in. Teachers and change that believes in students. The
Public School Choice Plan is not Change. It is a recipe for further
failure.
Vote NO on the Gardena Plan. Vote Saturday, FEB 6 AT GARDENA HIGH
Where do you teach Tracy?
I received this anonymous post card and I was really offended. I do not work for LAUSD, but I am a teacher in a neighboring district. What I found most offensive was that this post card targeted the math department and gave them nicknames like "Joker" and then listed their class's scores on the CSTs. I felt that this was bullying and the wrong way to go about trying to convince people to vote for reconstitution. Plus, the fact that the creators of this postcard/group did not and will not identify themselves is sissy.
Granted, there are huge problems on this campus, but the problems did not start at Gardena High. The problems started in the home and in the feeder schools. Did you know that students need to pass Algebra I in the 8th grade to be considered proficient in math? So, are the students at Gardena High entering high school proficient in math? If not, where is the accountability for students who are entering high school? The answer is that there isn't any. It is unreasonable to assume that a student who is not proficient entering will suddenly become proficient.
Now as for the teachers behaving inappropriately, that too is unacceptable. But what about the students? What about the parents expecting their students to behave? If there is a school culture of disrespect and misbehavior with students and teachers both non-conforming, this is an unfixable problem.
This is a sad state of affairs at Gardena High, however that post card was outrageous and frankly it ticked me off.