TROUBLED—Watts Facilities’ Problems Bring Challenges

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It’s recess at the Watts Learning Center, and some 200 5- to 9-year-olds are rollicking on two small playgrounds and in a lunch area partially blocked by parked cars. Several basketball backboards tower overhead, without nets or even rims.

When it’s time to return to class, the students find themselves either in small, older classrooms or in temporary mobile units brought in to accommodate the charter school’s growth.

The facility, a former private school at the Olivet Baptist Church on 95th Street, is the third home in four years for Watts Learning Center. Despite the challenges it faces, the school has managed to raise the test scores of its students. Performance could be further enhanced if a permanent home could be found, said Sandra Porter Fisher, the principal.

“We have been constantly looking for buildings that can be converted into a school, or appealing to property owners to sell us their land,” said Fisher. “These days, the feeling is that businesses bring money into the community and schools don’t.”

Watts Learning Center needs a three-acre site to accommodate its expected growth to 420 students from kindergarten through fifth grade, its library, health care center and playground.

The search is ongoing, though school officials hope to find a site by next year.

The school, which was granted a charter in 1997, first opened at the Hacienda Village housing project in Watts, sharing a cramped space with a Head Start program. The school eventually moved to the St. Michael’s High School for Girls on Manchester Avenue.

The charter school occupied the first floor of St. Michael’s until last July, when that school’s administrators told Watts Learning Center that they needed the space to accommodate their own growth.

“We had to scramble around to find a new facility,” said Fisher. “We even asked City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas and Congresswoman Maxine Waters to assist us. A parent of one of our students eventually found our current location when they drove by and saw a ‘For Rent’ sign.”


Dearth of options

Once the space was leased, there were only two months left to get the school ready to be inspected and approved by the school district, she said.

Robin McCain, communications deputy for Ridley-Thomas, said the councilman has met with school officials and has tried to find a facility that would meet the school’s needs, but it’s difficult to find any available land in the area.

A vacant lot across South Broadway from the school, which Watts Learning Center administrators say would suit their needs, is being developed as senior housing by the Community Redevelopment Agency. Jerry Scharlan, the agency’s director, could not be reached for comment.

“As (a council member’s) office, we can’t compel a landowner to build a school or designate sites for public or private schools,” McCain said. “We are here for them when they find a site and need assistance with zoning or grant permits.”

Watts Learning Center operates under the same budgetary constraints as any other charter school, but because it is one of the few that doesn’t either own its own building or use a public building, its monthly rent reduces the amount of money it has available for educational uses.

Out of its $1.2 million annual budget, said Fisher, “we set aside 10 percent to pay rent.”

Anita Landecker, executive director of the nonprofit Excellent Education Development group, said that because the Watts Learning Center has to pay rent, it is constantly fund-raising to make up the difference.

“That money was designated to pay for school supplies and teacher salaries and shouldn’t have to be used to pay rent,” Landecker said. “Bond money and school district money should be used to help these schools find or build suitable facilities.”

The balance of the school’s budget goes to teacher and custodial salaries, which, Fischer said, are competitive with the LAUSD’s salary schedule.

“When I was a principal at a (traditional) public school, all of this was taken care off,” she said. “If I needed a teacher or custodian, I just called the district office.”

The lack of institutional support is a mixed blessing, however.


Efficient model

Diane Wallace, a director with the Los Angeles County Office of Education and a volunteer at Watts Learning Center, said the school accomplishes its purpose of acting as a public school with a less bureaucratic environment.

“With less bureaucracy, decisions can be made on the local level making the teachers more accountable for the performance of their students,” said Wallace.

Even with its problems, the 4-year-old charter school is able to provide before- and after-school programs, along with two hot meals a day to its students.

“We provide child care to many single parents who are working hard just trying to survive,” Fisher said. “The school is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the goal of instilling a culture of learning in our students.”

Students attending the school come largely from Head Start programs in the area. According to the school’s charter, it’s open 180 days a year, not unlike a regular public school, but officials hope to extend that school year to 200 days.

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