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| John Zavalney greets Peaches, the science center's Shetland pony. |
Los Angeles
Unified To Give Up San Pedro Science Center to a Non-Profit
By Diana L.
Chapman
Swimming in
a chaos of budget cuts, Los Angeles Unified plans to turn over one of its last
remaining science centers to a non-profit organization to continue
its San Pedro operations, school officials said Monday.
The move
shocked employees at the 3 1/2 acre site who were told about the center's fate
last Thursday. The news slowly trickled out over the weekend, making some
residents concerned about the future of the center's popular farm animals, including
Ophelia, the 500 pound sow and Peaches, a Shetland pony.
A school
official close to the matter, who asked not be named because he hadn't received
clearance to discuss the change, said the time had come to admit the district
could no longer afford the facility. Los Angeles School Board Member Richard
Vladovic, who has fought to keep it open for the past five years, agreed for
the first time it was no longer feasible. The annual budget for the center is
at least $275,000, the official said.
"The
district doesn't have any money," said the administrator. "We've been
keeping it together with rubber bands and glue. The alternative was to shut it
down."
School
officials said they have yet to select a non-profit, but that the animals will
be safe and provided for in the meantime.
Current director
John Zavalney, a San Pedro resident, has the choice to move to the downtown's
district headquarters or to take a job teaching. The center's three technicians
will be moved to the Granada Hills Science Center, which supplies science
projects to elementary schools.
Zavalney
said he was told not to discuss the matter, but said he plans to take the 30
reptiles he cared for and place them in new homes. The director has served as
the center for nearly eight years and worked on community partnerships --
including getting his salary at one point partly paid by the Department of
Water and Power. That funding has since shriveled up. He added that initially he had been told they had one year to boost visitors numbers.
His wife,
Darlene, however, said she has no compunction talking about it and said
her husband is stunned.
"He
called and said: "They are going to give the center away," said Darlene, who added that her husband had
received numerous awards for his teaching skills, including Disney's American
Teaching reward as one of the top teachers in the country. "John was given
two weeks to clear out his stuff and the technicians have a month. This will be
John's 25th year. They've broken his spirit."
Resident
Judith Cairns, who fed and trapped wild cats at the site and had a working
relationship with Zavlaney called the decision "cloak and dagger. Our
hearts are broken."
"We are
horrified," she said "at what will become of Ophelia, the beloved
sow, Peaches, the pony, the goats, chickens, ducks, turkey, geese, birds and
the other critters who have made the science center so cherished by thousands
of students, teachers and members of the community who have participated in the
instructional field trips and activities at the Science Center for
decades."
Cairns said
she will file a Freedom of Information Act to see how school administrators
arrived at this decision.
No
non-profit has been selected to run the center that sits in the heart of a
residential area on Barrywood Avenue, tucked behind North Gaffey and Westmont
Drive, school officials said. A handful of such organizations had expressed
interest in the past and will be recontacted.
"There's
no non-profit identified," confirmed Chris Torres, Vladovic's chief of
staff. "The district did everything possible to keep it open."
But that has
just fueled speculation that the woman who once managed it as a volunteer will
return to run it again. Bonnie Christensen had recently complained to
Vladovic's office about the poor quality of the facility -- which had nothing
to do with the recent decision, school officials said.
A few years
ago, Vladovic had the science facility renamed to the Vic and Bonnie Christensen Science
and Sustainability Center because the couple who lived in the neighborhood prevented
the center's closure in 1969 an ran it for several years.
Christensen,
whose husband is no longer alive, said she has no interest in running a
non-profit, but would be willing to help school officials do what she did in
past -- gather up funding and volunteers.
When the
center was near closure then, she lobbied to run it with volunteers and led a
successful program until 1992. She received help from longshoremen and
the center's neighbors to continue educating students across LAUSD -- all
manpowered by volunteers. Students learned about farm animals, eggs, nests and a
myriad of other lessons about nature.
"I'm
not a non-profit and I don't even know how to start one," Christensen said, who
hopes to help the district. "We're going to get it going. I certainly will
support getting it back in condition. When I saw it, it looks terrible. I wanted to
cry. We are determined to get it back to the way it used to look.
"It was
so pristine."
