This School Refuses to Go by the Book : Brightwood Enriches Education With Innovative Approach

Summer is months away, but seventh-grader Elizabeth Cabrera is already dreading it.

In summer, Brightwood Elementary School in Monterey Park shuts down. No more gloriously packed school days like this one, in which Madame Butterfly’s mournful Italian arias float down the hallways from opera class, while the fifth grade’s model rockets boom into the sky, and a volunteer parent’s Indian sweet bread rises in the cafeteria ovens.

No more weeklong class trips, like the ones to Valley Forge or Washington, that every student in a certain grade can go on, even the ones who can’t afford to pay.

“On Sundays, I look forward to school,” said Elizabeth, 13. “In summer, I say, ‘I wish I were in school.’ ”

While other recession-squeezed San Gabriel Valley schools are cutting mainstays such as art and music programs, this scrappy public school is pulling off extraordinary enrichment for its students while posting state achievement test scores that rank among the highest in California. It is a school that is neither rich nor poor but makes do and then some with persistent parents and teachers.

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Its formula is as complex as the newest educational theories about teacher empowerment and parental involvement, and as simple as people simply doing it: teachers arranging transportation so parents without cars can make it to PTA meetings; a principal who allows most teachers’ ideas to flourish, including the elective opera classes.

This year, Brightwood has won a national Blue Ribbon School award and California Distinguished School honors. Among the school’s selling points: California Assessment Program test scores, which have shot up 46% in the past 10 years.

A Blue Ribbon evaluator noted in his report after a two-day visit to Brightwood: “I visited every classroom, K-8, in this school . . . and I only saw one class that was conducted in a traditional manner.”

Brightwood observers say the school has a long history of excellence. Alhambra Supt. Heber J. Meeks recalled what a longtime secretary told him in 1969, when he took over as Brightwood principal.

“I want to tell you, young man,” the secretary warned. “Brightwood is probably the best school in Alhambra (school district), the best school in the state of California, and maybe in the whole world. You have a big responsibility, sir.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District built Brightwood in 1960 on a grassy hillside in west Monterey Park that was topped by a water tower and little else. In 1961, Monterey Park homeowners made a successful bid to join the smaller, closer-to-home Alhambra district.

Brightwood’s school’s CAP scores were never low, but results got better and better as the school picked up momentum, said former Principal Jacinth Cisneros, who otherwise could not explain the upswing.

Cisneros, who was principal from 1985-89, said the school always had a strong enrollment base because the neighborhood was developed by young, professional couples with bright, motivated children. Parental support grew, and teachers started to outdo each other with ideas.

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“There is this sense that there are so many wonderful things to learn in this world that being in school six hours a day, that’s not enough time to do it,” said Cisneros, who left the principal’s job to become an Anaheim homemaker.

The Brightwood area now includes neatly kept bungalows and boxy low-income apartment buildings. The enrollment is 91% minority, including 66% Asian.

In this era of public school bashing, and growing frustration among teachers who say they can’t run their own show, Brightwood teachers say they feel free to experiment, inside and outside the classroom.

One teacher, for instance, approached Principal Grace Love with the idea of the seventh-grade opera elective. Another teacher got the OK to start a Japanese-language class for seventh- and eighth-graders. Still another, for the first time this year, won approval to blend sixth-grade special-education students into the mainstream classrooms full time, instead of only occasionally.

“Every year, we have these grandiose plans of what we want to do,” said seventh-grade science teacher Kevin J. Soule, 43.

The enthusiasm spills outside the classroom. For instance, the district doesn’t provide field trip funds any more, but parents raise money and help teachers organize weekend outings and field trips.

One year, social studies teacher Barry Glick took 25 seventh-graders to five operas on his own time; this year, he is planning four weekend outings for parents, teachers, staff members and students to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where the school arranged for cut-rate $6 orchestra seats.

Love said her teachers are in the driver’s seat.

“They’ll come to me and say, ‘I have an idea. What do you think?’ ” Love said. “I feel like I’m sort of a sounding board. I remind them of some pitfalls they may have to think about and hook them up with people who might have resources for them. But, by and large, because my people are so professional, a lot of times what I do is cheerleading to keep the fire going.”

Sometimes, Love said, cheerleading is all she can do because there is little money for anything but basic necessities. Brightwood gets about the same proportional amount of money as any other school in the state, based on average daily attendance.

Brightwood’s annual budget--minus teacher salaries and operating costs--is $73,000. In the 1991-92 school year, the Alhambra district pared $1 million from its $100-million budget and laid off about 100 people. Alhambra Associate Supt. Richard Keilhacker would not provide a figure on Brightwood’s cutback.

But Love was forced to shut down the school library, cut back an assistant principal to half time and lay off a part-time secretary. Love, principal since 1989, moved her office computer into a classroom because the school has no computers to spare.

The PTA tries to pick up the slack, although the use of PTA money is restricted (it cannot be used for staff salaries, for instance). An extraordinary number of Brightwood parents belong to the PTA--98%--and more than 11,000 volunteer parent hours are donated each year.

When parents are unable to attend school meetings, the staff arranges transportation. At the school’s Blue Ribbon Award ceremony, teachers and staff gave parents a standing ovation.

In past years, PTA presidents have lobbied the board of education for a cafeteria/auditorium and organized after-school art and drama classes. In good years, they raise about $20,000 for school trips and equipment.

“It’s contagious when you have people who are so excited . . . it spreads,” said Love, 38, a fast-moving woman whom parents and teachers call “Grace.”

Parents who try to lie low get cornered at grocery stores to help barbecue 600 pounds of Korean beef for the school fair or get called at home by teachers who ask them to bake brownies for a trip fund-raiser. Other parents start to volunteer here and there, and then get roped into bigger projects.

Homemaker Joanne Hertz, 33, had her hands full with three small boys but fell into an almost full-time volunteer job at the school. Hertz, a painter who is married to a Pasadena City College instructor, began by visiting her son’s classroom to teach an art class. Soon, other teachers asked her to drop by.

The demand was so great that Hertz finally started an after-school art class that meets once a week for 1 1/2 hours. Hertz filled four different classes of about 20 students each, ranging from first- to eighth-graders.

“They were able to help me figure out a way to use my (talent),” Hertz said with wonder. “You got the feeling that they needed you. That they wanted you. That they wanted your involvement. . . . So often, people I think would like to do something but don’t know what to do.”

Other parents who don’t have as much time to volunteer try to set aside money so their children can join the school field trips. Before the trips, teachers tailor lesson plans to prepare students and organize logistics with parent volunteers. Volunteers help organize phone trees to keep parents posted on arrangements and set up airport transportation.

Every year, fifth-graders take a weeklong trip that includes New York City, Philadelphia and Valley Forge, and mini-trips to places such as Santa Barbara. Sixth-graders spend a week in the Wrightwood outdoor science program, seventh-graders spend a week in Astro Camp in Idyllwild, and eight-graders spend five days at a Catalina outdoor science camp and a week in Washington.

None of the trips are paid for with school funds. Each grade has fund-raisers to pay for parts of their trips. And sometimes, parents who are paying their own child’s expenses add a little extra money to help someone else out. Teachers’ expenses are paid for by the educational service that sponsors the trips.

Trip fees range from about $265 for the Catalina science trip to $1,100 for the Washington trip, including plane fare and lodging.

“This is where the sacrifice comes in,” said PTA President Jack Ng, 40. “Parents really want their kids to go. . . . Especially these days, these are very tough times. They save up the money here and there.” One father, he said, gave up cigarettes and used the money he saved to help pay for his child’s trip to Valley Forge.

Evelyn Carmichael, 42, saved a little money each week so that she and her son could go on the $108-per-person, two-day trip that fourth-graders took to Sacramento last year. Carmichael, a single mother, works part time as a Brightwood cafeteria worker and as a clerk at County-USC Medical Center. She joined the trip to help teachers and other parent volunteers supervise the 29 students.

It’s tough enough to make ends meet, let alone provide extra money for her son, said Carmichael, who makes about $20,000 a year from her two jobs. Carmichael, who graduated from Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, wants her son to have the opportunities that she did not. Her eyes crinkle and her smile widens when she talks about her son, Bryan Jarza, who wants to be a Disney animator when he grows up.

“I only have him for a short time--he’s 10 years old. In nine years, he’ll be 19,” Carmichael said with a sad smile. “Here (at Brightwood), you feel safe. Once they go to high school, they want to be independent. I just hope he goes the right way.”

The school’s extended field trips started eight years ago, when district funds for such extras started to shrink. Teachers started planning their own trips and organizing fund-raisers to help pay for the outings.

Teachers Barbara Fairfax and Debbie Chin cajole every parent into either baking goods or donating at least $5 to the annual fifth-grade bake sale. They call parents who don’t respond.

“We’ve never had a problem,” said Fairfax, 52, a 27-year Brightwood teacher. “There’s no free ride.”

Students remember their teachers’ dedication and return to Brightwood, some to visit and some even moving back to Monterey Park so their own children can enroll at the school. Among Brightwood’s alumni is former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, who was graduated from the school in 1965.

Former student Desmond Lew, 38, lived in Alhambra until 1988, when he and his wife decided to move to Monterey Park so their son, Albert, could attend Brightwood. Another ex-student, 37-year-old Janet Marquez, begged the district for a permit so she could send her two children to Brightwood, even though the family lives in West Covina.

Recently, a 34-year-old alumna dropped by to visit seventh-grade teacher Barry Glick. The ex-student remembered how Glick, a New York native, had complained about the school’s wimpy whistles. Glick, who formerly had taught in the Bronx, said the only good whistle was called the “Thunderer,” ones used by British bobbies. The student just wanted to drop by a gift--an engraved, sterling silver Thunderer.

Brightwood at a Glance

Brightwood Elementary School in Monterey Park has won a national Blue Ribbon School Award. Here is a profile of the school.

Grades: Kindergarten through eighth

Enrollment: 776

Number of teachers: 30

Average teacher salary: $36,620

Rank in California Assessment Program tests: Reading, 98%; math, 96%; history/social studies, 93%; science, 97%.

Ethnic breakdown: 66% Asian, 25% Latino, 9% other (The statewide average is 43% Anglo, 36% Latino, 9% African-American, 8% Asian and 4% other)

Students with limited English proficiency: 27%

Students on free or subsidized lunch programs: 18.7% (The statewide average is 71%.)

Number of languages spoken by students: 15