Partnership for LA Schools
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA, LAUSD LEADERS TAKE SEAT ON ‘BACK-TO-SCHOOL BUS’ TOUR OF PARTNERSHIP SCHOOLS
Mayor highlights goals for Partnership for LA School: to improve English scores and literacy; to create safer, smaller schools; and to empower school leaders
September 3, 2008
LOS ANGELES - Beginning the first day of school greeting young students at Figueroa Street Elementary School, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today joined Los Angeles Unified Board President Monica Garcia and Superintendent David Brewer to highlight the ambitious goals he set for the Partnership for Los Angeles School with a Back-to-School Bus Tour that stopped at four Partnership schools where.
“For three years, I have talked about breaking down the school bureaucracy and fundamentally reforming public education in LA. Today, that vision hits the ground, and we open the school doors for 18,000 students,” Mayor Villaraigosa said.
With a dozen community and school leaders on board, the bus tour left from Figueroa Street and made the following stops to highlight the work and goals of Partnership schools:
* 99th Street Elementary School: Improving English test scores and literacy;
* Ritter Elementary School: New, visionary leadership;
* Gompers Middle School: Creating clean, safe schools for children.
On Tuesday, September 3, 2008, the Mayor set ambitious goals for the first year of Partnership schools, expecting schools to raise their academic performance (API) by double the rate of LAUSD schools - while raising the percentage of students scoring top marks in state English and math tests by double the rate of LAUSD schools.
Improving English scores
At 99th Street, the Mayor and bus group visited a second-grade English class, where they read a book about the environment to students.
The Partnership has made improving reading and literacy its top instructional goal at elementary and middle schools this year, bolstering the schools’ enrichment programs by dedicating staff to the issue.
New leadership
At Ritter, the bus group held a roundtable with the school’s new principal, focusing on the new, inspired leadership at seven of 10 Partnership schools.
For the first time in LAUSD, the principals at the Partnership schools are expected to spend three hours per day in the classroom observing and helping teachers improve their teaching skills. The seven new principals come to Partnership schools with an average of 20 years experience in education.
Creating clean, safe schools
At Gompers, the Mayor and group toured the transformational clean-up and over 250 repairs the school has undertaken over the summer, including: completely renovating the school’s auditorium; repainting the exterior of every building; removing graffiti and painting murals;
Creating clean, safe and small schools has been one of the Partnership’s first steps since assuming responsibility of its schools. The Partnership has arranged “deep cleans” on campuses and invested in repairing schools. Hundreds of parents and students joined the Partnership for weekend clean-ups and engagement fairs at every elementary and high school this summer, with middle schools to follow this month.
After-school programs
The Mayor capped off the first day of school with a visit to LA's BEST After School Enrichment Program at Kittridge Street Elementary School, where he joined young students in mask-making and learning to measure. Each year, LA’s BEST aims to expand the enrollment at each of the 180 LA’s BEST sites to include up to 30 percent of the school population. At the beginning of this year, the LA’s BEST enrollment exceeds more than 28,000 children across Los Angeles.
On July 1, the Partnership for LA Schools took responsibility for over 18,000 students at 10 of the lowest-performing public schools in Los Angeles: Santee and Roosevelt high schools; Markham, Stevenson, Gompers and Hollenbeck middle schools; and Sunrise, Figueroa, Ritter and 99th Street elementary schools.
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