Hillcrest Elementary
Hillcrest Elementary has simultaneously been home to the most promising and disappointing aspects of LAUSD's first Public School Choice Resolution’s cycle. It is the only currently existing school to receive an application from a charter school organization, and additionally had one of the most promising in-District reform efforts, led by a group of local teachers. Yet it has also been ground zero for the type of tactics that have threatened the very integrity of this entire process.
On the positive side, the teachers of Hillcrest have made one of the most serious attempts at in-District reform this process has seen. They have written an affiliated charter proposal, which will give them some – if not nearly enough – additional control over budgetary and staff decisions. A local group of parents and teachers would be empowered to hire and fire their own principal, and at least some additional accountability measures would be required of teachers beyond the basics of the District's existing failed contract. We have serious concerns about the lack of strong accountability and local control that an independent charter application would have provided, as well as the lack of any track record of success – Hillcrest is arguably the lowest performing elementary school in LAUSD right now. Nonetheless, the UTLA teachers’ proposal seems thoughtful, has at least some parental buy-in, and could present a significant improvement over the status quo. And at a minimum, the teachers have made promises to which parents – through California's historic parent trigger – are now empowered to hold them accountable.
Additionally, ICEF Public Schools, one of the strongest charter operators in Los Angeles, submitted an application to transform Hillcrest into two small, high-performing schools. Given ICEF’s impressive track record of success, this is clearly a great option for the parents of Hillcrest. We strongly applaud ICEF for doing what no other charter did this year -- they volunteered for the extraordinary challenge of turning around an existing, failing school. (We recognize there were several huge obstacles that kept other charters from doing so this year, including an extremely short time frame and ever-changing rules of the game, but we hope that future years see an increase in charters willing to take on turnarounds at the schools that currently need them most).
Unfortunately, all these positive developments have become overshadowed by the tactics of one of the applicants, which has decided that lying to parents is the only way to win their support. Last week, Hillcrest teachers began circulating this flyer with a series of absurd lies and misinformation about the ICEF plan, the most egregious of which was that if ICEF wins, many students will no longer be allowed to attend Hillcrest, but rather be bused to some undisclosed, faraway school. Perhaps such misinformation could be excused as a misunderstanding if it were coming from a random teacher or other individual. This flyer, however, came directly from the Hillcrest teacher leading their effort, a UTLA chapter chair from another campus, and the UTLA Board President himself, Alex Caputo-Pearl. Anybody who has filled out an application or paid one iota of attention to this process knows that every applicant had to agree to accept every child within attendance boundaries as a precondition of even applying for a school, which of course ICEF explicitly does in their application. Any assertion that these individuals did not know this fact is beyond disingenuous.
Even worse, this is far from an isolated incident. As the LA Times opines today, "mudslinging" by District staff has occasionally deterioriated the process into "an ugly disinformation campaign." Just as we saw during the past presidential campaign, it is clear that when one side starts disseminating lies and scary rumors, it is because they have run out of real ideas and solutions. Hillcrest is undeniably one of the lowest-performing schools in LAUSD – barely 20% of their students are at grade level in English and math. But rather than engage parents in an honest discussion about the status quo and how to improve it, some have decided to slander an applicant with a history of successfully educating these same children. Rather than fighting with facts and reason, they have turned to scare tactics and smear campaigns.
Ultimately, we believe far more unites than divides us as parents and teachers because it's impossible to have a great school without great teachers. We believe that we all must eventually march together in the long journey to transform public education. We understand if we can't agree on a common agenda for improving our schools today. But if we can't treat each other as current partners, we can at least treat each other as future partners. We can disagree on policy without sinking to lies and smears in some win-at-any-cost game in which our children are the only sure losers.
In many ways, Hillcrest has become a microcosm of not only this entire resolution process, but also the entire movement to reform public education. There are hopeful moments that reflect upon the better angels in us all. Moments where we put aside our differences, and even our narrow self interest, to stand together for our children. These moments give us all tangible hope for a better tomorrow. Because we can see this hope in our own actions today. And then there are moments where we revert back to base instinct. Where we see a dark side of the process, where defenders of the status quo will sink to almost any level in order to stop transformational change. These moments are the reason we needed a parent trigger. They're the reason why parents deserve the historic power we now have. Because we only get one fleeting chance to transform public education for our kids, and we're not going to waste that chance.
In the coming months and years, it is crucial that we learn from Hillcrest, and preserve what's best about this process while eliminating what's worst. But with or without this process, we will take back and transform our schools for one simple reason – because we have no choice. We are simply parents who love our children, who will fight by any means necessary to give them the education they need and the future they deserve.
