How to Fix Schools? Answer Is Fundamental, She Says

Her bloodlines are European but her parents lived in Guatemala, where she was born in the small town of Chichicastenango. When her family moved to the United States and she started public school, young Rosemarie Leonhardt was 6 years old and spoke only Spanish.

Today, 47-year-old Rosemarie Avila is a school board member in Santa Ana, the county’s largest district where nine of every 10 students are Latino.

And yet, playing contrary to form and stereotype, Avila is wary of “multiculturalism” in the schools and “reformers” whom she sees as a threat to old-fashioned American-style education. It would be glib but not altogether off the mark to say that Avila, the mother of five, wants a school district that stresses phonics and the flag.

“We don’t need all this new innovative experimental education,” she says, “when we have examples that work. I always thought if you could prove something would work, people would do it. But that’s not true. There are so many political ramifications.”

One thousand five hundred and twelve.

That’s the number that sticks with Avila. It’s the number she got last year when she called the district’s three “fundamental” schools--two elementary and one intermediate--and asked how many students were on their waiting lists.

In a district with 38,000 students at those two levels, 1,512 is not an avalanche. But Avila is convinced the fundamental schools, which stress homework, strict academic accountability, parental involvement and a more traditional approach to education--not to mention a dress code and patriotism--are the city’s best-kept secret.

Test scores at the district’s three fundamental schools speak for themselves, Avila says. They far outpace the rest of the district.

She says students accept the tougher, more consistent discipline and the classroom accountability. Two of her three school-age children attend a fundamental school, with the third on a waiting list. Tellingly, that child is enrolled in private school rather than another public school in the district.

Avila is unabashed in believing that patriotism belongs in the schools. “My daughter in third grade did the American ABCs, and that was apples, baseball and cowboys. In doing that, they memorized the National Anthem and all the states, which they usually do in 5th grade.

“There’s a feeling that these people are new to this country, and we don’t want to impose our country on them and take away their pride in who they are. Here, the kids are developing pride in their country, and I think the most important is it gives these kids a sense of identity and respect. We live under the Constitution and have rules, but if you love it and respect it and think it’s good, you’re more apt to be law-abiding.”

Asked if she favors prayer in schools, she says, “I would say that’s part of my agenda. But I do believe schools are public domain.”

While the fundamental schools clearly have lured the district’s Anglo students (the percentage of them at the two elementary schools is 29 and 31, far above the districtwide figure), Avila rejects the notion that the fundamental schools wouldn’t work citywide.

“That’s the criticism,” she says, “that our culturally deprived students couldn’t do it.” She said her observations of her children’s classmates persuade her otherwise.

Aside from myriad complaints about what she derisively calls progressive education, Avila believes Spanish-speaking students are phased too slowly into English. By the time they’re making a strong push to move into English, she says, they’re already too far behind--a late start that catches up with them by the critical junior high years.

With fellow member Tom Chaffee, Avila has been on the short end of more 3-2 votes than she cares to remember. While the other board members don’t oppose fundamental schools, Avila thinks they are dragging their feet and bending to politically correct pressures.

“There’s a multiculturalism that everyone would agree is good, which is that we appreciate each other,” Avila says. “But I think there is a more extreme multiculturalism, which is more like (arguing that) everyone has their own identity and ethnic roots and language and to have them fit more into an American mode or assimilate is robbing them of something.”

Avila is convinced history will prove her right, if only the district will move fast enough. “It upsets me that we’re holding the kids back. I think we’re handicapping them. We have such potential and the kids are really smart and they can do it.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.