LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT CORTINES TAPS THE DISTRICT’S SOUTHERN HEAD TO MIND HIS LARGEST REGION: GONE IS THE LOCAL SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT WHO SHEPHERDED THE BUILDING OF A CONTENTIOUS NEW HIGH SCHOOL IN SAN PEDRO – AND GUIDED SAN PEDRO AND GARDENA HIGH THROUGH A MECCA OF CRITICISMS DURING PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE

Diana L. Chapman

Linda Del Cueto, who led the way to build a new high school in San Pedro

despite a storm of sharp criticism and steered a collaborative principal to the

area, stepped down from her post in June where she headed all of Los Angeles

schools in its southern region.

She left the job with “mixed feelings” somewhat “bitter-sweet” to head Los

Angeles Unified’s largest region of schools, plopped in central area of Los

Angeles starting in July.

“I loved it here and I’m really going to miss everyone,” Del Cueto explained

during a June interview. “I worked really hard to learn all the unique and

diverse communities and I loved it from the spirit of San Pedro to the

uniqueness of Gardena.

“It’s a lateral move, but it’s one that that Superintendent Cortines asked for.”

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines needed an experienced

official to manage the largest area of LAUSD which boasts 131 schools, 15 of

which are high schools.

Her new post, she said, will primarily concern an effort to make those campuses competitive enough to keep middle class residents in public schools who are racing to charters and private facilities.

During her three years of heading the southern region, which runs from northern

Los Angeles above Gardena and swoops all the way south to the cliffs of San

Pedro and encompasses Wilmington, Carson, Rancho Palos Verdes, and Lomita, Del Cueto leaves behind her a repertoire of successes – perhaps the most difficult,

finding a principal to rescue the beleaguered San Pedro High.

San Pedro High was thrust into a “public school choice option,” meaning it would

have to compete to maintain its schools against outside operators, such as

charters or non-profits. It also suffered from revolving door leadership,

drooping test scores, poor accreditation and an entrenched staff.

When the last principal retired shortly after a brief two-year stint, Del Cueto

went out of her way to find a successful, “collaborative,” “drill-down,”

principal, one who this time lived in San Pedro, understood the community and

had a keen ability to bring players together.

So far, new principal Jeanette Stevens, who Del Cueto nabbed from another region of the district to prop up San Pedro High School -- has proven to be popular

with the community and scores of teachers within her first year. The school is

expected to pass its accreditation this month – without much trouble – and has

launched a new layout of small learning communities at the overcrowded school of 3,500.

Del Cueto also showed her expertise in manning such a vast area of schools after

weathering the brunt of intense criticism in San Pedro when the district agreed

to build High School 15 at the Upper Fort MacArthur reservation, called Angel’s

Gate.

Despite massive opposition from a narrow contingency of neighbors, the school

board agreed to build the 800 seat campus, which is expected to open in 2012.

Del Cueto braced the swirling controversy in which residents relentlessly

complained about massive traffic in their neighborhoods, dangerous access on

Alma Street and the destruction of the serene area that overlooks the Pacific.

“I learned through this that the district can do a better job of communicating

with the public,” the regional superintendent said. “Just because I’m passionate

about building a new school, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be sensitive. When the

district rolls out such large projects, it has to be done in a much more

communicative manner.”

Los Angeles Unified had owned the 28 acre site for years. The school will be an

annex of San Pedro High and will partially house San Pedro High’s Marine Magnet

students. The campus will be surrounded by educational resources, including the

Marine Mammal Care Center and the International Bird Rescue Center.

Other areas Del Cueto said she’s proud of include:

--Changing the definition of “articulation” so that it doesn’t mean students get

just a tour of their next school. Now, she leaves behind plans for feeder school

teachers to meet with the faculty at the students’ next educational level. For

example, middle school teachers will talk with high school teachers about

algebra and math, she explained, and what students learned as well as their

strength and weaknesses. In some cases, teachers will even visit students at

their new school.

--Turning Gardena High, another struggling campus under the “public school

choice option,” to small learning communities, but in this case a 9th grade

academy was added. Ninth graders will wear uniforms “to minimize potential

conflict” and be separated from sophomores, juniors and seniors who are not

required to wear uniforms. “We felt the students really needed this as a safety

step,” Del Cueto explained.

--Working with LAUSD's school board member Richard Vladovic’s office in obtaining $25 million worth of funding

to give Harbor Teachers Prep Academy – a nationally recognized high school that

boasts the highest test scores and graduation rate in the district – a permanent

home at Los Angeles Harbor College. It currently operates in bungalows at the

college and has no access to sports facilities. She considered the project a top

priority as the school draws students from Wilmington , Carson and San Pedro.

With Del Cueto’s recommendation, Michael Romero has been named interim local district superintendent.

Vladovic, who Del Cueto worked closely with, said she will be missed, but that Romero is an excellent pick for a replacement.

“Linda did a good job and cared about kids, Vladovic said. “She had a

fundamental belief that all children can learn and exemplified effective

leadership at Local District 8. We will miss her greatly but we have a new Local

District Superintendent Michael Romero who can hit the ground running and who

has very similar traits.”

JANICE HAHN RECALL? WHAT DO YOU THINK? HERE’S WHAT I THINK
By Diana L. Chapman

My anti -Janice stories are stamped on its pages. Just check out the website: recalljanice.com

Or check another with not much on it except for a photo of our councilwoman with a red circle and a slash: recalljanicehahn.com How about recallhahn.com? She’s really hung out to dry.

None of these websites lists the names of the people—or--the name of the organization responsible for the website. For the past couple of years, I’ve written many an article about Councilwoman Janice Hahn for her failure to help the communities she represents or support those who work in the trenches. In particular, she hasn’t demonstrated the ability to respond to the smallest requests, even the slam dunks. She’s an elected official with absolutely no vision. And yes, I do think she’ll leave office without making much of a mark. Why then am I so disturbed by this recall effort when I should be the first to sign up??

Here’s why. For the most part, the recall activities are faceless. None of these websites lists a single name as to who is responsible. I take issue with that. With all the San Pedro community leaders who have been involved in some way or another, only one--Joe Gatlin—has confessed to participating in the recall meetings. He claims partial responsibility for recalljanice.com. He now says he leads the effort and, sometime in July, will drive to City Hall with four others to sign a petition launching the recall paperwork.

The other four choose to remain nameless until they’ve signed the petition. The larger committee of 20 to 30 folks also don’t want to be named, he added, because they fear retribution and “I respect that.”

That’s hard for me, because I don’t respect it. I respect that Gatlin is upfront about it. I respect that Gatlin and Anthony Santich, a port executive and former San Pedro Chamber of Commerce president, are 100 percent behind the recall. Santich, who like many supported Hahn for a long time, has been open with his criticism over the past few years. He has stepped down from the committee, so it won’t be viewed by others as a personal vendetta, which it’s not, he insists.

The councilwoman, he argues, “tries to make the issues personal between us, and I guess it is personal to the extent that I love San Pedro. I’ve watched my community go backward for years while Hahn misleads the public and plays both sides of every issue. I want progress.”

I ditto Santich’s statements completely, 100 percent, with sugar on top. That’s why I’m so frustrated with Hahn’s leadership. She could have done so much more, whether it was development of our waterfront or supporting the popular vision of one resident to use goats to clean up Peck Park. (It didn’t matter that folks came to the park from everywhere dragging their kids just to see the goats!)

Our community should be a jewel – a city treasure. Instead, chunks of our area still look like a bunch of leftover hiccups from the1950s: rundown mini-malls and drab outlet stores still accent our main drags. While a few things have been done, like the $1 million “Welcome Park” that no one can access safely, other features near the entrance of San Pedro still look like a dump.

It’s not pleasant and there seems to be no larger vision of how to clean up and beautify San Pedro.

In the meantime as the recall effort brewed for the past eight months, there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on. Initially, I was told that former restaurateur John Papadakis and former L.A. assistant police chief David Gascon were involved. Papadakis refuses to comment here. He did tell Daily Breeze reporter Donna Littlejohn that he’s had nothing to do with the recall but is “sympathetic.”

Gascon has met with several friends over the past several years pursuing the issue of leadership and wanting changes at the City Council level, including potentially recalling Hahn. He hasn’t remained involved in the discussions, however, because he travels for weeks at a time. Over the last five years, he says, several people have broached him to run against Hahn.

“People are pretty frustrated and I hear things, but I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Gascon says. “I’m just not sure who will do what or how it will evolve. People expect leadership. But according to those with whom I’ve spoken, she says one thing and does another even on the smallest of issues. It’s disappointing to hear.

“I understand why people are reticent to say too much in the public. They’re afraid of retribution.”

Gascon adds he has personally offered to assist the councilwoman on community issues, an offer that remains open. He was a City Hall insider, he says, since he was in charge of critical LAPD functions.

Former Councilman Rudy Svorinich tried to separate himself from the recall efforts by writing letters to local newspapers that neither he nor anyone in his office was involved. “Over the course of the past many months,” Svorinich wrote, “ there have been rumors and innuendo circulating in a small circle within our community that I, and perhaps members of my staff, are participating in and/or support a surreptitious recall effort against my successor on the Los Angeles City Council, Janice Hahn.

These rumors have no basis in fact and are completely untrue. I take great umbrage, at the least, to what I believe is my good name being used or circulated in a manner in which I do not approve.”


I was given printouts of e-mails, however, that document discussions between Anthony Santich and Svorinich employee Tom Shortridge.

In a series of messages, Shortridge asks: “Do you have PO Box yet? How about a voice mail? I can set up email accounts that come with the account. Rather than have them forward to your regular email, I can just give you the user name and password info and you can use it directly so emails will come from info@recalljanicehahn.com rather than from your personal email. Tom”

I faxed the emails to Svorinich’s staff and asked for the former councilman to call me. I have not heard anything.

As for Gatlin, he has myriad reasons to be angry with the councilwoman. In particular, she let slip through her fingers the chance to build an African-American heritage facility at an abandoned city fire station. Since culture has been such a large part of San Pedro’s history – and is honored at such facilities as the Italian, Croatian and Dalmatian clubs -- I can’t help ponder why she allowed the collapse of this proposal. The black community, Gatlin said, has influenced the region’s development as far back as 1918.

He added that the groundwork with the city’s Cultural Affairs was near completion and and ready to go.

If the recall is successful, Gatlin said, he will run for office. Santich, who once voiced an interest, said he no longer wants to run.

Other reasons Gatlin said he’s angry include that he believes Los Angeles port officials have hired out-of- state workers when so many are unemployed locally. He says he asked Janice to link local folks with the port for those posted jobs. “She’s abandoned this community,” he said.

I agree with that, too. And have written repeatedly about it. Overall, some residents across the board are frustrated that Janice voted to expand council term limits from two terms to three —and after she won 75 percent of the vote last year, ran for lieutenant governor, a race she lost.

Her love affair with Reggie, the escaped alligator in Machado Lake, was embarrassing considering how many more pressing needs could have been addressed. If she spent as much time leading the waterfront development as she did worrying about Reggie, our waterfront might have been finished.

If Gatlin and his nameless crew actually take out the paperwork, I’ll be impressed.

“"If they're serious, they should stop talking and start doing," said Doug Epperhart, who sits on the Coastal Neighborhood Council.

Even if they do file the paperwork, there’s a rocky road ahead. For a recall to succeed, the petitioners need 15 percent of the total votes cast for the candidate in the past election. Gatlin said that’s about 15,000– and they need it within 120 days of filing. If those involved don’t come out and identify themselves, how can the public know who the heck is running this other than Joe Gatlin?

Janice has the right to at least know that. And so do all of us. Honestly, I’d sign the petition. But I can’t if the accusers don’t step up. That’s the ethical, fair thing to do.

FRUSTRATED UNEMPLOYED EDUCATOR WRITES ABOUT LIFE SINCE HIS JOB LOSS: NOW READY TO RETURN TO CONSTRUCTION WORK HE DID TO SURVIVE THROUGH COLLEGE, HIS NUMEROUS DEGREES, HE SAYS, APPARENTLY DON’T MEAN A THING

By Mike Bennett

You have to love this country, where most politicians speak from
both sides of their mouths to remain in office and could care less about
their constituency, as long as they are receiving their paycheck! Well, now
that I have been deemed by our illustrious Congress a "Welfare Recipient,"
"Hobo," Ne'er-do-well, and refusing to accept a position below that of my
salary history, let's cease the sublimated, caste system equivocating of our
esteemed elected officials and look at my own real-life situation. No, I
shall not be whining, just stating the facts.

I am the son of a Building Contractor, grew up working and learning the
business and eventually took over and expanded the business for 15 years,
while at the same time I attended and graduated from college. After spending
two years in physical therapy learning to walk again (following a severe
construction accident) I returned to school for a second graduate degree and
became an Upper Elementary, Middle School and Continuation High School
Teacher, teaching all subjects, but also being the Math/Science Resource
Teacher for 11 years, at the various schools in the Inner City. While
teaching, I received yet another Education related graduate degree and after
11 years in the classroom, I made the transition to being an Adjunct, then
Appointed Professor of Teacher Education for the next 10 years. With the
budgetary upheaval in the universities, state budget crisis, and cuts in
Education (cut teachers, there is no need to train more); I became a member of the "Unemployed Hobo Association. It is at this point that things become
quite interesting and makes Congressional opinions, attitudes and comments
so supportive, resplendent and filled with the knowledge of myopic wisdom.

I have lost count of the number of positions I have applied for in the
past year, most of which have gone unanswered or filed in the circular file,
but when a hopeful response is received, you are told the department is on
the edge of collapse (or has already done so), you are too highly educated
to want to consider returning to the classroom or you do not meet the
current standards as set by the office of the Secretary of Education (three
quick notes, both Bush and Obama are guilty of promulgating the demise of
Education most; even if you have an outstanding success rate in the
classroom, they want younger, less experienced teachers whom they will pay less; and if schools don't do exactly what they are told (teacher guidelines) they face having their funding cut or vaporized); or if I hire you to hang drywall, dig foundations, frame or even attempt to sell building materials, you won't remain with us (if they indeed have any work and are hiring) for very long because you are too highly educated, will either bebored by those you work with or try and take away my business.

So with over twenty years of construction experience (in all
trades/phases) and 21 years as an Educator (ok, I’m being snotty, but I am
far more than simply a teacher) I have been turned down for jobs stocking
shelves and/or off-loading materials at Home Depot, nor can I get hired as a
Middle School Teachers Aide, but, oh, that’s right I’m a Hobo, a Welfare Cheat and won’t ever consider a job that pays less!

Mr., Mrs., or Ms., Congress Person, I guess you have either forgotten or
it was beneath you to know that I am the person who may have educated, you,
your children, grand-children, at the very least some of your constituents and/or was the person, who unclogged your toilets, fixed/remodeled your
home, was the person you called, at any hour, after the flood destroyed the floors and walls in your house or when the tree caved in your roof, that I am
merely a conman and a bum, who you have supported far to long, at such an
exorbitant wage.

Since that is your belief and with all the available time I now have not seeking honest gainful employment, I suppose I am going to have to reassess your future employment and do everything I possibly can, to make sure you join me in the bread-lines and experience the Caribbean Cruise Life, firsthand, outside you polished marble, hallowed rotunda.

LONGTIME VETERAN ADMINISTRATOR AT SEVENTH STREET ELEMENTARY DEPARTS THE SCHOOL HE LOVES FOR REST, PEACE AND SOLITUDE FROM THE INCREASING CHAOTIC TURMOIL IN THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT


IN A CAREER THAT SPANS ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL AND REACHED OUT TO A LARGE PART OF LA, THE PRINCIPAL SAID THE SHRINKING SIZE OF HIS STAFF AND OTHER HARDSHIPS ARE PART OF HIS DECISION-MAKING TO RETIRE AT 57


By Diana L. Chapman


Veteran Principal Zan Colazas – who ushered in after school Italian classes and encouraged parents to dress his campus in artistic mosaics – announced his retirement from Seventh Street Elementary School in San Pedro where he served for nearly a decade.


He leaves at the end of June.


Taking with him stories riddled in both horrific heart-break and glowing warmth, Colazas departs from a school he adores, a staff he admires and the faces of 550 elementary children he can’t resist. His health, he said, pushed him out the door sooner than he expected when his blood pressure soared.


“My personal life is stress free,” Colazas explained, adding that he’s proud of his 19-year-old daughter, Kristin Colazas Delfs, who is currently studying Arabic in Morocco. “But (the job) is becoming more difficult and more stressful. The support for the principal and teachers has been slowly eroding. They cut our custodian. They cut our clerk position. They cut our literacy coach and writing coach. We averted disaster with our library.


“I love the school and I love my job. It’s just that nothing stays the same, does it?”

The district’s increasing budget mayhem, however, has taken a toll on his health and reduced his staff (many he considered like family) by more than 20 percent . So at the age of 57, he vowed to hang up his chalk board and walk away from primarily Los Angeles unified schools that have partially shaped his life over the past 33 years.


Facing a $640 million deficit for 2010-2011, the Los Angeles school board approved the layoffs of thousands of teachers, custodians and other administrative staff Tuesday.
Even during tough times – Seventh Street has markedly improved in test scores, earning many accolades and built a better reputation and bridge with the community.


Despite being a Title 1 School – meaning many of the students are below the poverty line – the campus swarms with an unusual number of parent volunteers which helped beautify the once drab school with colorful mosaics – including a long windy outdoor wall that snakes in front of the library.


As part of the school’s literacy garden, the wall – about the height of a bench that was geared as a place for students to sit and read– speckles daily with an array of bright and bold mosaic tiles that represent children’s books such as Charlotte’s Webb and The Cat and the Hat.


While beautifying the school was one of his goals from “it’s drab 1960s look” and achieving a campus that has an “overarching philosophy of doing what’s best for kids,” he’s proud of bringing aboard a Wonder of Reading Library – which enhanced the facility and doubled its size.


Winning the California Distinguished Award in 2006 and 2010, Seventh Street also achieved federal recognition four times for “Triple A” academic achievement.


Because an Italian population exists in San Pedro – and Colazas believes in introducing children to second languages as soon as possible – he grabbed the chance for grants that provided Italian classes. For the past five years, he applied and received funding which sends an Italian teacher to Seventh Street four times a week to teach two classes.

It’s programs like this and his support for parents that improved the campus.
Jeannie De La Cruz, the president of the Parent Teacher Organization who herself is stepping down from the leadership post, said she and other parents will be sad to see Colazas leave.


“We will miss him very much,” De La Cruz said. “He was a great principal and he did what he could for the parents and the students. He was supportive with the parents and the workers. It’s a stressful position.”


Los Angeles School Board Member Richard Vladovic agreed that Colazas was an excellent fit for the school. "I brought back Zan to the district and assigned him to Seventh Street,” he said. “His leadership will be missed."


Describing a career both sweet and sour, rewarding and punctuated with heartbreak for some students, Colazas , a Long Beach resident, began teaching kindergarten at the private Rancho Lomita School in Lomita about age 19. He leaped to Los Angeles Unified when he was hired in 1977 to work as a sixth grade teacher at Manchester Avenue Elementary School in South Central.


Working at that school was some of the happiest times in his life, he added, because he knew he could aid the children there.


“I loved it,” he said, dressed in a casual periwinkle-colored shirt and sitting in a chaotic office due to the move. “It’s the kids who need help and where a teacher can really impact a kids life in a good way. I might have stayed, but I got bumped out.”


While Manchester was primarily an African-American school, he did spot a growing Hispanic population which led him to take courses to become fluent in Spanish and receive a California Bilingual Certificate. That opened doors, he never expected. Other teachers recruited him to the Harbor area where he taught sixth grade at Wilmington Park School in 1983.


From there, he worked his way into becoming “an outreach consultant, which is like a glorified truancy officer,” he said, where he was in charge of uncovering why students failed to attend schools. Reasons stemmed from children having nowhere to wash or bath, because they were living in junkyards, boatyards or entire families were residing in cars or the children were “school phobic” – too terrorized to attend.


“I did help a lot of kids, because I’d solve the problem,” he explained of the post. “If it was clothing, I’d find them clothing. If it was baths, I’d find them housing. I guess the worst case I saw was two kids. They lived in a wrecking yard and they both had severe head lice. They were never going to get into school that way. We were able to find them hotel vouchers.
“It was a real eye-opening experience.”


His career took off in an administrative fashion where he held numerous posts and in 1992 soon became an assistant principal – who then ping ponged into schools that needed substitute principals and the “rocky road began.” Each time, he landed a new school to fill in for top administrator on leave, they’d return and he’d get bumped “again.”


In 1994 – after an 11-year-old boy fatally shot himself on the front steps of Forty-Ninth Street School, Colazas was tapped to take over the school after the principal and the boy’s teacher both took leaves of absence.

His job was to pull the devastated morale at the campus back together and get the staff and students through the horrific suicide. The child killed himself after a teacher demanded he get his father’s signature on a paper or not to bother to come back to school. It’s a ploy teachers have used so students can attend field trips and such, the principal said.


No one knew the child was so terrified of his father that killing himself seemed the better option than asking.


“It was a tough school, a tough year, and everyone thought the principal wouldn’t come back, but he did,” the administrator said. “I had to clean up some messes, fire some employees and then rebuild morale and build a positive spirit. We brought in an arts program the students never had.


“It was a challenging year.”

He continued to ping-pong to two more schools before he landed at Hawaiian Avenue Elementary School in Wilmington where he stayed for six years. He left the district briefly and then returned to Seventh Street in 2001 and found himself home at last.

“It’s a school that really fits into my philosophy and I had a good run (at Seventh Street),” he said. “I plan to travel, fix my house and spend time with family. I’m going to miss it. I already have twinges of sadness.”

A replacement principal has not yet been selected, he added.