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Larchmont Chronicle Neighborhood newspaper representing Hancock Park, Larchmont Village
Miracle Mile, Park La Brea Fremont Place in the Wilshire center area of Los Angeles. Local News and
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Hancock Park area. Founded in 1963 on Larchmont Bouelvard, Los Angeles, CA, California

July 1, 2010

L.A. HIGH UPDATE

Suzan Filipek

L.A. HIGH CAMPUS is the oldest in the city.

Students studied a little more, teachers pushed a little harder and maybe a prayer or two were said in the hopes that when test scores are announced in August Los Angeles High School gets a passing grade.

If the Academic Performance Indicator (API)—based on student tests taken in June—is 600 or above school officials can breathe a sign of relief.

If not?

Well, that has yet to be determined, says Douglas Waybright, director of Local District Three in the Los Angeles Unified District.

A target API score of 800, based on schools statewide, is still a distance for L.A. High, but, at least the school is on the right track by returning to a traditional calendar, school officials say.

In the fall the school’s 3,000 ninth through 12th graders will be on a September-to-June schedule. This is after 15 years of year-round classes to accommodate an overpopulation of up to 4,800 students. Students’ different tracks resulted in a drop in athletics, academics and school spirit.

Year-round classes “are really a terrible way to try to educate, so this is something we’re excited about,” said Waybright.

School officials are hopeful test results will be up 36 points from last year’s 564 API score, because of outreach and motivation strategies implemented last year, says Steve Austin, English language coordinator. “We’re really working to get us out of this thing that we’ve fallen into,” he added.

Low scores in English, math and social studies coupled with a 40-percent drop-out rate have placed the campus on the unenviable list of being among the 32 lowest-performing schools in the LAUSD. If the scores are not high enough, management of the campus could be taken over by an independent profit or non-profit educational organization, i.e., a charter school, says Ken Marsh, a member of the Roman Circle, a group of alums working to help save the school.

Other groups that could take over the campus include an educational management company, a foundation, the teachers’ union or the existing administration and staff. A last resort could be to close the school.

The other possibility is that “none of these things might happen,” said Waybright. If the school shows progress, “why would you want to change it?”

The LAUSD board is scheduled to decide the fate of L.A. High in February.

How did things get so bad for the once proud 137-year old campus, the oldest in the city, wonders Marsh.

When the Roman Circle formed two years ago members sought to do good works in general, but soon realized it was their school that needed help, and fast.

“It was so pitiful compared to what we had,” Marsh said.

Besides ranking high academically, when he attended the campus in the 1950s, it looked more like an English university. The red brick building was razed after a 1971 earthquake and fire.

Larchmont Chronicle
542½ North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Editor & Publisher: Jane Gilman
Associate Publisher: Irwin Gilman

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