2 Area Elementaries Tackle ABCs of LEARN : Education: Annalee in Carson and Hawaiian in Wilmington begin reform program aimed at giving district schools and educators more autonomy and less bureaucracy.

Parents and teachers at Annalee Avenue Elementary in Carson agreed about one thing: Communication was a big problem.

“Many times, we feel it’s us against them,” parent Lili Smith said of the relationship many parents believed they had with the teachers.

So last month remedial education teacher Delores Watkins-Simmons, who was trained in LEARN, a program designed to reform the Los Angeles school system, decided to start a Parent-Teacher Assn.

“We are being taught that we all have to work together,” Simmons said of her LEARN training. “I’m not going to say, ‘Let someone else do it.’ ”

Starting a PTA may seem like a small step, but it’s an important one as Annalee Avenue and Hawaiian Avenue Elementary in Wilmington and 33 other LEARN schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District begin to implement reforms designed to revitalize the troubled school system.

LEARN, or Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, was developed last year by a coalition of business leaders, educators and community activists. It is an experiment that incorporates management training for principals and teachers, who will have autonomy in designing better ways to run their schools and help children achieve.

Using methods taught by faculty from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Graduate School of Management, the teachers and principals will learn how to prepare their school budgets and map strategies for improving education.

So far LEARN has spent $1.2 million in private funds on the schools.

LEARN focuses on granting greater autonomy to schools, allowing teachers and principals to bypass the district’s bureaucracy and develop their own educational innovations and budgets.

Annalee and Hawaiian were selected for the LEARN program from the 100 schools that applied. Schools that garnered a 75% yes vote from teachers, classified employees and parents were selected.

Annalee, with about 400 students, is in a largely middle-class community. The teaching environment is not always ideal, since vandalism, theft and graffiti are recurring problems.

Hawaiian, with 1,400 students on a year-round schedule, is in a low-income area where drug deals, gang violence, theft and domestic violence have plagued the community and its children, the sons and daughters of immigrants from Central America and Mexico.

Although they have different demographics, the schools share at least one thing: frustrated teachers who view LEARN as key to improving their schools.

Although both schools are in the early phase of the program, teachers and administrators say they already have noticed a change.

“Among the teachers, there is a newfound energy,” said Jim Abbott, principal of Annalee Avenue Elementary.

At Hawaiian, teachers say LEARN will strengthen the foundation of reform they have tried to establish.

“Instead of us separately trying to problem-solve in our own little cubicle,” said kindergarten teacher Sandra Gomez, “we are doing it together.”

During a recent LEARN-related brainstorming session, for instance, teachers attacked the issue of low scores in reading and math at Hawaiian, searching for solutions.

“Maybe we (teachers) don’t know how to help parents help kids,” said one. “Maybe our expectations are too low,” said another. Lack of achievement, they all agreed, probably stems from the lack of proper rest and nutrition, low self-esteem, and emotional stress linked to the home and community.

So they came up with the idea for a “newcomer class” for children who have recently immigrated to help them understand the school rituals and protocol. Another suggested that more effort be given to to helping parents--most of whom work during and after school hours--become involved in the child’s education.

Principal Tommye Keenan said the suggestions would be reviewed.

Hawaiian Elementary may be ahead of the game, Keenan said, because the staff has practiced school-based management for the last three years, along with about 80 other schools in the district.

Although teachers say it is still too early to declare LEARN a success, they credit the program with inspiring them to think of new ways to tackle problems.

“Before, we would do things the same way and complain,” said Carole Wiezorek, a teacher at Annalee Elementary.

Things are different now.

Before school started last month, Wiezorek said the teachers took an inventory of the school’s strengths and weaknesses.

The good news, Wiezorek said, was that reading and math scores recently had improved, but, with Annalee averaging a big fight every two days, “We saw discipline as the big problem.”

A committee of teachers was formed and members spoke to the children during an assembly about how they are expected to behave on campus.

The committee also devised a reward system to inspire good behavior. If the students behave and play in their designated areas during lunch, that class gets a “check.” A class can earn a maximum of three checks per day and, at the end of the week, the class with the most checks gets to display in their classroom the “We are a LEARN School” banner that hangs in front of the school.

“Already, we’ve seen a difference. We’ve gone two weeks without a fight,” Abbott said. “Kids keep the other kids in line. They are taking responsibility for each other.”

LEARN President Mike Roos is not surprised at the give-and-take that has occurred at the schools.

The first year of the LEARN program focuses on teachers developing programs tailored to their school’s needs, Roos said.

During the second year of the program, each LEARN school will design its own budgets, based on the needs of the school. Roos said the LEARN schools will control 85% of the per-pupil funding each school receives from the state.

At the end of the first year, the LEARN schools will be evaluated by the program’s board of directors, who will survey parents, teachers and principals.

Roos said the questions will vary from “Has your child made academic progress?” to “What is your criticism of the school community?”

While most teachers at Annalee and Hawaiian are hopeful about LEARN, some are still skeptical because of past promises of reform.

“The district has to have a hands-off policy, in terms of how we spend our money to meet the needs of the students,” said Sharon Harrison, a teacher at Annalee. LEARN will be successful, she added, “only if we (continue to) get the training to carry out the restructuring.”

So far, the LEARN efforts at the schools have focused on teachers and principals, although administrators have promised to inform parents soon of the changes that may occur.

“We are still not sure what LEARN is,” said Lili Smith, parent of a third-grader.

Teacher Watkins-Simmons said the new PTA group should allay such concerns.

After two meetings, Watkins-Simmons said more than 20 parents have promised their time and ideas.

“It (LEARN) has made a difference,” she said.