SOUTH LOS ANGELES — Fighting to maintain control of Hillcrest Drive Elementary School — one of 36 schools up for bid under the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Public School Choice resolution — teachers, staff, parents and union representatives are making sure they are in the mix of hopefuls.

On Jan. 11, Hillcrest Uplifted, a collaboration of the stakeholders in the school, submitted their own school takeover plan, along with five others who filed letters of intent — including the Illinois-based Synesi Foundation, SANKOFA Alliance, Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools, Garr Academy of Mathematics and Entrepreneurial Studies and United Teachers Los Angeles, which is working in conjunction with Hillcrest Uplifted.

“We as teachers want to work as closely as possible with all parents and the community,” said Hillcrest teacher Sonya Solice. “We want to be as complete and as collaborative with all members as possible and I believe that this plan does exactly that.”

Hillcrest Uplifted hopes to run the school as a dependent charter and magnet school.

Broken up into several academies — the primary center for grades pre-K-2, Dual Language for grades K-5, Music Magnet for grades 1-2, Civic Responsibility Academy for grades 3-5, Visual and Performing Arts Academy for grades 3-5, Multi-Media and Technology Academy for grades 3-5 and Music Magnet for grades 3-5 — students pre-K-2 will begin in the Primary Academy, after which they will be given the opportunity to select the academy they want to attend upon completion.

Goals include: “Freedom to determine the school-based curriculum and assessment practices that will best prepare our students’ state and district assessments, budget control to enable the school to decide on providing the best programs and services to students and their families, freedom to create a governance structure that allows the school’s governing school council to have decision making powers over budget approval, principal selection, and programs and policies, freedom to hire staff who best fit the needs of the school, freedom to decide on the professional development in which faculty engage, [and] freedom to set the school calendar,” reads the proposal.

Hillcrest would follow the traditional LAUSD calendar, which consists of 180 days, but will extend the day from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and provide a minimum of 64,800 minutes of instruction. Its daily after school program would run from 3 to 6 p.m., which will be filled with extracurricular activities and a one-hour homework club with one-on-one and small group assistance.

Class sizes would be reduced to maintain a 20:1 ratio.

Parent involvement, according to Hillcrest Uplift’s plan, would be mandatory. The combination of parent, teacher and student participation will allow teachers to “know all their students and families, and be better able to meet the needs of each child,” the proposal reads.

Teachers will be expected to work in teams to pre-plan and organize their curriculum based on state frameworks and content standards. Peer teaching would allow instructors to monitor and observe the students and assess how effective their teaching strategies are.

Leadership and governance will be conducted under a governance board, school site council, leadership team, English Language Learners advisory committee, Standard English Learner Advisory Committee, Compensatory Educational Committee, as well as a number of stakeholders.

“My colleagues and I are eager to have this opportunity to submit this proposal of reform for Hillcrest Drive Elementary,” said William Celestine, teacher and magnet coordinator. “Never in the history of my 14 years as a teacher here at Hillcrest have the teachers and staff been given the opportunity to be direct conduits of the advancement for our school.

“The proposal we are submitting is the best choice for the current and future students of Hillcrest Elementary and the community of Baldwin Village,” he added. “Under our plan, through the creation of specially designed academies, every student will be taught in a personalized setting. The vision for our students is for them to dream of the possibilities and learn the skills needed to make those dreams a reality. … Under our plan parents will play a significant role in the decision making process and that is why it is so critical for all of our parents to show up and be a part of the process.”

Hillcrest became one of the schools up for bid after being in program improvement, a status given to the district’s lowest-performing facilities, for more than 10 years. During this time, students have made very few academic gains.

A school overview for 2008-09, shows that of the 595 students tested, only 20 percent were proficient or advanced in English Language Arts and 26.9 percent in Mathematics, which “is less than half the target,” said Christopher Downing, LAUSD’s administrator of Parent Community Services. And with only a 1.2 percent average yearly growth, the gains were not sufficient enough, according to LAUSD officials.

According to Hillcrest’s plan, they project the school’s API score will be 838 by 2015, a 238 point gain from 08-09.

“The way you go into program improvement is if your school does not meet its academic targets for proficiency,” said Downing. “When we look at when this school entered program improvement, Hillcrest entered program improvement in 1997-1998, so more than 10 years. … It’s time for some changes. Ten years is enough … there were a lot of schools that were in program improvement for a long time, but on their API this past year they made growth so they were not selected to participate. When you look at the performance of this school, there was actually a decline. This was a case where there was no positive growth.”

This came as a shock to many parents at the Jan. 13 parent meeting held in the school’s auditorium.

“You have known for 10 years that we [didn’t] meet the standards,” said one enraged father. “Why did it take [more than] 10 years for it to come to this. Was anybody awake 10 years ago? I can see maybe one year or two years, but 10 years. We need a change now … I’m not here to hurt anybody, I am a concerned parent. …These kids are the tomorrow of America and with no education we will fall into a third world country.”

Though their concerns seem to be addressed by Hillcrest Uplift’s plan, many parents were anxious to give their input.

According to the parents, they want to see more stringent safety policies. Parents also want effective teacher-student relationships, extended school days, programs that help transition English Learners, bilingual staff to communicate with Spanish speaking parents, sensitivity and professional development training for teachers, cultural diversity and technology and equipment.

Currently there are 12 focus schools. At the high school level there is Gardena, Garfield, Jefferson, Lincoln, Maywood Academy and San Pedro high schools. At the middle school level there is Burbank, Carver and San Fernando middle schools. At the elementary level there is Griffith Joyner, Hillcrest Drive and Hyde Park elementary schools.

An additional 24 new schools are a part of the process as well, many of which are in the process of being created to relieve overcrowded sites.
“In talking with the board member who initiated this resolution, Yolie Flores, she has met with some of our parent groups,” said Downing, “And said she didn’t want these new schools to fall into some of the same patterns as our existing schools.”

Parents and staff from Hillcrest will have the opportunity on Jan 21. to interview all applicants so that during the first week of February taking a vote — conducted by the League of Women Voters — on who can best lead the school.

Those totals will then be given to Superintendent Ramon Cortines and the board, who will then announce their decision.

The announcement date has not been finalized.