Plan for Free Tutors Gathers Support--and a Rival Proposal

The concept of free tutoring for all of the city’s students appears to have gained support and is heading for a decision this month.

Councilman Robert Diaz, a teacher at Bell Gardens Elementary School who has long sought to implement his suggestion for free professional tutoring, said he would formally submit his proposal to interim City Manager George Caswell. Under Diaz’s plan, the city would spend $85,000 to create an after-school tutoring plan.

At the same time, however, the city will also consider a much cheaper alternative proposal for free tutoring, using students and paid local residents as the tutors.

Diaz last month asked the council to include his program in the city’s $7.74-million budget adopted Jan. 23. However, council members, concerned about the cost of the plan and the lack of a written proposal, left it out of the budget. They agreed to consider the plan separately at their Feb. 13 meeting.

After learning of Diaz’s proposal, a Covina teacher approached the city with another plan that would use volunteers and paid local residents as instructors, for less than half the cost.

Warren Kirkpatrick, who has taught at Las Palmas Intermediate School for 25 years, estimates that his proposal would cost $37,000 a year.

Referring to Diaz’s proposal, Kirkpatrick said, “$85,000 is an exorbitant amount to spend.” He added, “When I saw those figures, I said, ‘Whoa, we could do it for a lot less.’ ”

Kirkpatrick read a newspaper report about the suggestion for the $85,000 program and called Councilman Fred Barbosa, who asked him to submit a written proposal.

Barbosa says he agrees that the city should have a tutoring program but initially opposed Diaz’s proposal because it calls for exclusive use of the old Council Chamber, next to the city library. Barbosa wanted to share the chamber with the city’s preschool program, now operating in a recreational building near City Hall. Others said they were concerned about the program’s cost in light of the city’s projected $700,000 deficit.

Diaz has long sought a tutoring program for Irwindale, but his present proposal represents his most concrete attempt yet, council members said.

Irwindale does not have its own school district, and most of its school-age children attend the Covina-Valley Unified School District. District officials estimated the number of Irwindale residents in the district at 100.

Douglas Jenkins, assistant superintendent of educational services for the district, said he would welcome any tutoring services the city could provide.

Irwindale Mayor Sal Hernandez said, however, that before the city approved any tutoring program, it should establish an exact count of schoolchildren in the city.

According to Diaz, the bulk of the $85,000 he is requesting would pay for as many as 35 certified instructors. The tutors would be paid about $25 an hour, Diaz said. But that rate could change.

“A lot would depend on the availability of tutors,” he said.

Kirkpatrick, who ran a tutoring program at Mt. San Antonio College, near Walnut, for 17 years, is proposing hiring between six and nine paid tutors at $5.25 an hour. His prospective pool of instructors would include parents, college students, older high school students and additional volunteers.

He said he would run the program and be an on-site adviser for the tutors. Kirkpatrick, who would supply some of the materials left over from his Mt. SAC program, is asking for $25 an hour to be the program’s director.

Karen Meyers, dean of continuing education and community services at Mt. SAC, declined to evaluate Kirkpatrick’s performance as head of the tutoring program or explain his departure late last year.

Kirkpatrick also declined to comment on his departure.

However, a former Mt. SAC administrator, Edward Harnandez Jr., said, “It was a really good program.” Harnandez, now vice chancellor of student affairs at Rancho Santiago Community College in Santa Ana, added: “He did a very good job for me.”

The college continues to run a large tutoring service for community children based on Kirkpatrick’s original program.

Although Diaz is pursuing his own program, he said he would consider hiring Kirkpatrick as its coordinator.

“I’m encouraged to see that he’s interested in at least being the director of the program,” Diaz said.

Barbosa said he has given up battling Diaz for the old Council Chamber. At this point, he said, he would support either tutoring program but is leaning toward Kirkpatrick’s program.

“I can’t see any problem in trying it,” Barbosa said, adding that he liked Kirkpatrick’s program because it would use local residents.