Appreciation for a Better School

It is very difficult to express in a few words to a vast number of people grateful appreciation for the help we received to better the conditions of the physical plant at Wilmington Park Elementary School, by finally voting and allocating money to build a cafeteria and six additional classrooms. The present conditions are not only inadequate, but are also embarrassing in that the school is as forgotten as is the rest of Wilmington.

In the name of the children and all their parents, I wish to express sincere appreciation for all the help and encouragement we have received. Special thanks to Ada Montare of the U.S. Justice Department; Robert Lawrence, deputy state school superintendent, and Donna St. George of the Los Angeles Times. I wish to thank all involved for their efforts, numerous meetings, deliberations, and votes to mete out justice to us and for erasing from the forehead of the No. 1 nation of the earth, the shame of teaching in bathrooms, for want of other space, those (with) whom in the future will rest the responsibility of maintaining and guarding this great nation.

Most especially, I wish to thank the parents whose wonderful work has brought about (plans for) the building of the cafeteria and six classrooms within the next two years. Their children will reap the fruits of their parents’ labors.

This is one of the few times in life in which everyone wins: Wilmington wins because its citizens will have worked to achieve a great success; the school district wins because one of its schools will be improved; the U.S. Department of Justice wins because they have been successful in their efforts; the various politicians win because they’re proved that they listen, investigate and act; the taxpayers win because their money is being used to erect a building for children, and finally, our children win because they, too, will now have real classrooms in which to learn and food to eat that has not been unpalatably seasoned with bird droppings, oil pollutants, cement factory dust and soap factory chlorine emissions.

Thanks to all who have helped win a hard, 12-year battle to right these wrongs. A standing ovation to us all!

IRMA CASTILLO

Wilmington Park PTA president