By Gary Walker
THIS IS OUR SCHOOL, TOO – Parents whose children are in the community school at Broadway Elementary School feel like they are being pushed aside by some parents of the Mandarin immersion program. Pictured left to right: Patricia Sanchez, Leonel Martinez, Ugalina Corral, Carlos Avelar and Maria Reynosa. Front: Laura García and an unidentified parent.
On any given day, one can view the smiling faces of young children heading to Broadway Elementary School in Venice, as is the case in many schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Parents engage each other after dropping their young charges at the gate and sometimes walk a few blocks away for coffee and more conversation.
But these days, unlike the children inside the elementary school, many of the parents unfortunately view each other with suspicion, making Broadway the flashpoint of a simmering debate that has pitted parents of a popular language immersion initiative against families whose children and grandchildren have been attending the neighborhood school for decades, and in some cases have graduated multiple generations.
The Mandarin Chinese immersion language program at Broadway, implemented three years ago, has been by all rights a highly popular initiative and is growing at a steady pace. Families have flocked to the school to enroll their children, which in LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer’s eyes, is a sign that his plan for an instructional language pipeline is coming to fruition.
As a testament to the popularity of the Mandarin program, applicants staked out their positions in front of the school during the early morning hours of March 8 to apply for the 75 student slots for the 2013-14 academic year.
Zimmer, who represents Venice schools and was recently reelected after he defeated Mar Vista parent Kate Anderson in the March 5 District 4 race, has supported similar initiatives at two Mar Vista schools, Grand View Boulevard Elementary School and Mark Twain Middle School.
But unlike at those schools, tensions at Broadway have been high since last year when Zimmer was forced to confront a situation that involves not only parental choice, but also a clash of different cultures, gentrification, real estate, socioeconomics and according to some, misplaced entitlement.
After considering a variety of options last year as the Mandarin program continued to grow, Zimmer made the decision to move the language immersion students to Marina Del Rey Middle School in Del Rey, a decision that enraged many of the parents whose children are studying Chinese.
They began their pushback last year – lodging complaints about being forced to drive their students to a new campus – before multiple entities, including the Venice Neighborhood Council’s Education Committee and Zimmer’s office, as well as taking their grievances to online message boards and blogs.
Odysseus Bostick, a Westchester parent whose daughter is in kindergarten in the Mandarin program, said a move to Marina Del Rey Middle School would create an additional challenge to the fledgling immersion program, which is going into its third year.
“Every single year we’re recruiting teachers, and we have to find teachers for third grade because there are not a lot of bilingual teachers available who are fluent in traditional Chinese and are credentialed,” he explained. “They’re just hard to find.”
Parents like Bostick who want their children to learn Mandarin Chinese are coming to neighborhoods like Venice but largely live outside the school’s enrollment boundaries.
Broadway has fewer that 25 classrooms, which created a headache for the district. Soon, the choice came down to two options: keeping the Mandarin program at Broadway, with its growing numbers, or moving it to a place where it could develop with more classrooms.
When it was suggested that Zimmer change the enrollment boundary to move children who are not in the Chinese immersion program to Westminster Avenue Elementary School, tensions that had been lingering below the surface erupted.
Some parents at Broadway’s English speaking program, largely composed of African-American and Latino families including some who have lived in Oakwood and the surrounding neighborhoods for decades, decided to leave the school.
Others decided to fight back by protesting the Westminster transfer, which was quickly dropped once it became public and was dismissed by Zimmer.
Emotions also boiled over last year when several Latino students, according to some of their parents, were removed from the Mandarin portion of the school for not meeting certain language guidelines, which no longer apply to the program.
While Mandarin immersion parents sing the praises of Broadway Elementary Principal Susan Wang, many of the Latino parents accuse her of exacerbating the conflict by intentionally not informing them about the language immersion requirements, a charge that she denies. They also believe that Wang is encouraging the Mandarin immersion parents to protest the move to the middle school.
“She’s the one who has been in the middle of all of this,” said Leonel Martinez, one of the neighborhood parent leaders.
Martinez claims that Wang only wants a select group of children to participate in the immersion initiative.
“(Wang) opened the program for everyone and later told many of us that our children couldn’t be a part of it,” he recalled. “I think that she just wanted to push the community people away and only let (Caucasian) and Mandarin children in.”
Zimmer recognizes how tense the situation is at Broadway two years after “colocation spring,” in which hard feelings emerged at some District 4 campuses between some charter schools and neighborhood schools.
“I have dealt with some very highly charged, complex issues in my district,” the school board member said. “I would submit that this one is the most highly charged.”
Zimmer said given the dearth of space at Broadway and the popularity of the Mandarin immersion initiative, not everyone is bound to be happy with whatever decision was made.
“There is no way to make a decision that will be best for every parent,” he acknowledged. “The best thing that a school board member can do is to recommend the solution that is best for every child in every program.”
Bostick said the Del Rey middle school’s infrastructure is currently lacking in some amenities that the Mandarin immersion parents would like for their children.
“The facilities there need a lot of work,” said Bostick, citing the lack of sinks and water in some of the classrooms. “I’m not saying that it can’t be done, but there are so many things that need to be done to those facilities that the cost of moving our program there is huge at a time when there are fewer resources dedicated to growing it where it is and then maybe moving it later would probably be a better choice.”
Martinez, who has lived in Venice for more than 20 years, said gentrification in Venice in recent years has exacerbated the situation at Broadway, with many longtime residents feeling that newcomers are seeking to change their neighborhood and dismiss their way of life.
“Imagine if you have a house and you invite someone over. Then that person invites someone else to come and live at your house,” he said. “Soon, they want to take over your house and one day they tell you ‘why don’t you go live somewhere else, a mile away?’
“That’s how we feel. It feels like (the Mandarin parents) want to push us out of our school.”
Bostick said he understands why parents of the neighborhood school are also anxious, but he says none of the parents that he knows are trying to push anyone out of Broadway.
“The mistaken concept of our school is an exclusive school and it’s really inclusive,” he said.
The school board will vote on a resolution to pay for needed upgrades at the middle school on April 9, which will largely determine if the program will move.
Bostick said he would take his daughter to Marina Del Rey, if that is where the program ultimately settles.
“Absolutely,” he said.
Wang did not return calls for comment.
Broadway Mandarin Immersion is a startling example of what public schools can do. The curriculum is challenging, teachers are inspired, parental involvement is total, and children are thriving. The school is bucking flat or declining enrollment trends at all area schools and helping point the way towards a bright future for LAUSD and the public education options for Venice residents, where the middle class is once again participating in building successful schools that provide opportunity for all.
The Mandarin Program is the school of choice for many Venice residents and Broadway is their neighborhood school too!
Ten years ago, the English program at Broadway enrolled 372 students. Today, the program enrolls 160 students, down 57% in one decade. Roughly 50% of those enrolled have obtained inter-district permits. This leaves only 60 students (excluding the 5th grade students who will graduate this year) currently enrolled in the English program. Many families are seeking academic programs that address the global, multilingual, and multicultural society in which they live. The English program at Broadway does not meet their needs and is unable to sustain itself.
Broadway Mandarin Immersion has been a success by any measure and shows how LAUSD can stop the outflow of local residents to private schools and neighboring districts.
Steve Zimmer’s recommendation to move the MI program, negatively impacts several of our local schools not only physically, but financially as well. Many MI parents feel district administrators should focus their efforts on replicating the success of this program in the proposed location rather than uprooting these students and families.
If allowed to remain at its current location, BMI will be one of several thriving public school choices in the Venice community, including the other LAUSD elementary campuses, and provide compelling LAUSD options to parents who can also choose between a variety of local charter schools and/or private schools. BMI offers exciting possibilities for the other LAUSD schools: In one scenario, it could feed into the new Mark Twain MS language academy, becoming a K-8 program, with Venice High School then providing dual language pathways to college and beyond.
Venice is on the precipice of an educational Renaissance. More and more people are investing time and energy towards making our public schools good – for their children, for their friends, for the community and because of their understanding that the success of our democracy is proportional to the education of our children. The BMI community is committed to being part of this vision. The urgent challenges facing LAUSD with regards to the BMI program require creative thinking, good community relations, boldness of vision, and accelerated decision-making by not only LAUSD leadership, but Venice stakeholders as well.
I, and many BMI parents, look forward to being a partner in that process for the benefit of all children in our community.
Sadly, all of the children, Latino, white, Asian, black will be getting less than they deserve when zimmer forces the mandarin program to move. The English program will not have the services they so deserve due to the low enrollment and as of next year, two campuses will be sharing a budget and staff. Charter schools have toured the broadway campus to fill the space of the mi program and the plan to possibly bring in a Spanish immersion program is not supported by the teachers who will remain on campus. If it does emerge into a Spanish immersion it will siphon children from grandview elementary (2 miles away) and Westminster, which is currently enrolled. How about some real planning for all children instead of more politics? Who is this helping?
This is an unfortunate situation on all sides but there can be a positive solution should all possibilities be explored. Considering all the schools in the local Venice area have been under enrolled for decades and the educational models have been fair at best what can be done to solve this? There needs to be stronger educational models developed in the local Venice schools. The Mandarin program at Broadway is such a program and has proved itself…the numbers don’t lie. Westminster which is a Math and Science Magnet School is climbing higher on the ratings scale but is still under enrolled maybe this is where a solution can be looked for.
To move the Mandarin program out of Broadway will only open the campus to Charter schools looking for locations. Both Ocean Charter and the Geothe German Immersion School have already toured Broadway. So, Broadway will be right back where it has been with an under enrolled program with now a charter school occupying the majority of the campus. How does this make sense, it doesn’t. Nothing really changes for Broadway Elementary School.
The Mandarin Immersion Program needs to stay in Venice for the simple fact that Venice deserves to have great schools. The Mandarin Program will continue to draw attention and help develop a better reputation for the neighborhood schools in Venice…FINALLY!
From the current LAUSD website:
Are there any requirements to enroll my child in a dual language program?
Students must enter the DLP at kindergarten. The child must be proficient in either English or Spanish (for the Spanish DLP) or English or Korean (for the Korean DLP) or English or Mandarin (for the Madarin DLP). In some cases, a new student who is assessed to be at grade-level in the target language (Spanish, Korean or Mandarin) may be enrolled into a DLP beyond grade 1. Consult your local dual language program school for details and enrollment procedures.
Published on 20 April , 2006
http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,230342&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP
Just for clarification,
1. The facilities at Marina Del Rey lack the basic access to running water and toilets that LAUSD requires for kindergarten and first grade students. These aren’t “amenities” in the sense that they are luxuries.
2. The student demographics within the Mandarin program are entirely inclusive, compromising Latinos, Asians, Caucasians, and African-Americans.
3. Moving the Mandarin program off Broadway’s campus will cost millions of dollars and result in a charter school taking over the majority of Broadway’s campus.
4. As a teacher, my main concern with moving the Mandarin program at this point is that it adds unnecessary complications with facilities at a time when we – as a program – are still struggling to design curriculum for 3rd grade, let alone 4th or 5th grade, while we are also still struggling to recruit teachers. In other words, if the result of this move is that a charter takes over Broadway and the Mandarin program is compromised in the process, is it really worth $3-4 million when the district is still struggling to keep programs open?
As Steve Lopez pointed out in his Los Angeles Times article last week, LAUSD has not been able to make 35,444 repairs—some dating back years—to its schools. Spending at least $2.5 million to convert a corner of Marina Del Rey Middle School into an elementary school campus that is up to LAUSD’s “code” makes little sense. It makes even less sense when, to solve the space issue of a growing program, 60 families could be moved to another undersubscribed neighborhood school, Westminster, just seven blocks away, for much, much less.
I thought this article was biased, for the following reasons:
1. It makes it sound like the Mandarin program is composed of nothing but affluent white and Asian families, which is not true at all. We have many Latino and black students enrolled, and many of our students come from families who are struggling financially. In fact, the Mandarin program is more diverse than the English program, which is almost exclusively Latino.
2. It inaccurately conveys the idea that the English program students could keep this campus if it weren’t for the Mandarin program. The truth is, there aren’t enough English only students left to keep the school’s doors open. This school was previously slated to close for this reason.
3. The article makes it sound as though the English only program is composed of local kids in the Oakwood area, and the Mandarin program kids are transported in from out of the area. The truth is, there are more local, Venice kids in the Mandarin program than in the English only program. The majority of the English only kids are driven in from out of the area.
I am a member of a family that has been in Venice for five generations, since the 1950s. We finally have a local public school that provides an intellectually stimulating, dual language program. I cannot understand why the District wants to take it away from us. My daughter has invested three years learning this very difficult language, and it will all be a waste if the school moves and she can no longer attend. That would be a bait and switch of the lowest order.
I think Mr. Zimmer needs to step up to the plate and do what is needed to encourage this fledgling program.
After all, Mr. Zimmer, how many other LAUSD campuses have parents camped out at midnight to assure a seat for their child for the next year??!!
Yes, I agree! Cultural diversity is prominent in the Mandarin program. There is also evidence of beautiful and valuable culture in the existing (prominently latino and african american) program. Let the Mandarin program stay at Broadway and find a way to gap the cultural diversity. Zimmer says he wants to get money out of politics. Invest in the local Broadway campus, a dying school that will be left open to charter schools (if the Mandarin program is moved to Marina Del Rey), just to diminish the existing culture AGAIN. The local community doesn’t want to deal with a whole new subset of cultural diversity after just having dealt three years with the Mandarin program. And both Broadway programs have proven to work well in the past. What we need is more transparency from Principal Wang, in the form of 1-hour open mic meetings once a week, after school, where anyone can voice an opinion. Votes can be taken by paper ballot there AND on-line, after the meetings are aired publicly. The biggest problem of big money in politics is that it’s exclusive, and what we need NOW, more than ever, is an inclusive community, celebrating cooperation, and all the things we want and need in our schools, for our children.
Why not interview all sides- like the Hispanic families who chose to leave the regular English program and join the Mandarin immersion program? Those families have endured bullying and some have been ostracized from what used to be their friends. Shouldn’t the journalist look at the data to see how diverse our program is? I know some of the families photographed and I know they did not consent to this article or its sentiment against our principal. Inciting racism has been the easiest way for board members and staff to divide our campus in hopes of looking blameless. It is time for Zimmer to put that aside and do what is best for ALL families. We need peace at our school so that we can focus on what is truly important- educating our children.
In defense of Principal Wang, she has always worked extremely hard for every child at Broadway whether they are in the English program or Mandarin Immersion program. Under her guidance Broadway’s API score went up by 107 points in one school year and that was only from the English program’s CST results since the Mandarin Immersion students have not taken the CSTs yet – the first cohort, which is now in second grade will take them this May.
I know that when some parents from the English program complained of being excluded from the Mandarin Program, Principal Wang offered their child a place in the MI program but they then turned it down. So they can’t turn around and blame her for being shut out of the MI program.
I know from personal experience, Principal Wang is truly dedicated to ensuring that each and every child at Broadway gets the best education possible, whichever program they are in. She told me that even one bad year of instruction for a child is hugely damaging to that child’s development and she never wants that to happen on her watch.
I was raised bilingual and not all kids can get the second language. I struggle even this day to be excellent in both languages, confuse spelling, correct grammar and the list goes on… My thing is, my child is still going to be in the U.S., wouldn’t dare to send her overseas as many countries can be very lawless in doing business etc. English is a priority that has to be top notch as it’s still international business language leading, then whatever second language learning will be a plus but not mandatory. You think this immersion is great, yes it is but for only certain children who are up to it.
Bravo…for a bilingual Chinese and English class to be in our public school.I personally was raised in public school system and I have to admit it was very challenging then 40 years ago, like it is still is now. Politics should not ruin it for the children.
We as parents if we are fortunate enough should always find the best options for our children and if we want them to learn a different language. I had to take English for 8 years to almost perfect it without an accent. I wish people could take the time to appreciate where they live…THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. God bless America.