Playa Vista dispute reflects classism as major issue facing LAUSD
The school board vote was simple, but the matter is far more complex, drawing a focus to an issue many within LA Unified find uncomfortable to talk about: classism.
The issues involved in the Playa Vista Elementary Schooldispute are a microcosm of complexities within the second largest school district in the country. They involve noise and air pollution, freeways and airports, pitting charter schools with traditional public schools, school over-crowding, district budget cuts and an increase in demand to teach the students’ parents in an ever-growing adult education program at LAUSD.
And, it also involves classism: With the area in question a part of Los Angeles that includes million dollar beach houses and families with yachts as well as some of the most notorious gang-infested housing projects in the city, where do children go to school?
The friction began when Playa Vista Elementary opened in 2012, offering a highly-regarded STEM program for kindergarten through fifth grades. It had 36 classrooms at the time but has now grown to 540 students with no more space available. New housing under construction nearby suggests that by 2020, the school will need to accommodate 400 more students in 14 more classrooms.
For now, some of the classroom space for Playa Vista is housed at Wright Middle School, which also has 19 classrooms on campus for the Westside Innovative School House charter elementary school (WISH). The district is looking for a new home for the charter classes and is considering renovating the adult school at Emerson, which was originally built as an elementary school.
Now, there are families who want a separate middle school, and don’t want their charter children going to school with traditional school students. They even issued apress release in that regard. Parent and longtime resident Lisa Hamor said the conflict has resulted in “pitting schools against schools, and potentially students against students with little or no regard for our students or our existing school communities and their desire for a quality education.”
The school board voted to conduct a feasibility study to see about locating the charter school at the Westchester-Emerson Community Adult School and upgrading Wright’s science lab, as it seeks to deal with increasing enrollment at the local schools — one of the only areas in Los Angeles where enrollment is burgeoning.
Underlying any final decision are issues of diversity.
In one of his final speeches as superintendent, made at last month’s board meeting,Ramon Cortines recounted how the issues are playing out across the district. Playa Vista dispute reflects classism as major issue facing LAUSD - LA School Report:
