Learning Materials Donated to Schools

Acting on the premise that greater literacy is a key to fighting juvenile crime and lowering school dropout rates, a Westside group is providing dictionaries, books and other learning materials to Pacific Palisades elementary and high schools.

The Eastside-Westside Concerned Citizens Committee donated 43 Spanish-English dictionaries and 15 hand-held “Speak ‘N’ Spell” computers to Pacific Palisades Elementary School.

Principal Terri Arnold said the equipment will be used to set up learning centers for the school’s 120 limited-English speaking students, most of whom are bused in every day from Central City neighborhoods where there is no classroom space for them.

The school recently added two bilingual teachers to work with an increasing number of students who speak little or no English, “but we just haven’t sufficient resources to meet the needs of the large numbers of children we’re getting,” Arnold said.

Alex Cota, 61, who heads the Eastside-Westside group, said supplies are desperately needed by teachers who don’t have the resources to deal with the students whose command of English is limited or nonexistent.