New School Tailored to Lennox

Lennox, the largely Latino immigrant community under the flight path to Los Angeles International Airport, is abuzz with the thrill of a new, and purposely unconventional, school.

This week, the founders of that charter high school signed a lease for temporary classroom space while continuing to weigh prospects for a permanent site near LAX.

The principal has signed on, and so have the teachers for the first year--three seasoned pros and two enthusiastic novices.

Founders still are designing the curriculum and working out a thousand details, even as the strong response from parents has set them scrambling to increase the size of the first freshman class, from the originally planned 100 to as many as 140 before the school opens in August.

“It’s a great opportunity for us,” said Martha Alvarez, 15, a Lennox Middle School eighth-grader who believes that attending Animo Leadership High School will help her achieve her dream of a college education.

“And we can become part of history for starting it.” she added, in words that may be more meaningful than she realizes.

The new high school stems from a collaboration between a longtime political activist with big dreams but little formal background in education and the Lennox School District, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade system renowned in education circles for its groundbreaking work with its students and their families.

The effort is especially focused on decreasing Lennox youngsters’ dropout rate from area high schools and encouraging them to attend college. It is getting a big assist from nearby Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit-Catholic campus with a strong tradition of immigrant education and community outreach.

While Animo (Spanish for spirit or courage) is being custom-tailored for the Lennox community, it will have much in common with campuses across the nation that are part of the rapidly growing charter schools movement. It is an education reform gambit that pins its hopes on allowing public schools to try new ways of doing things by granting them charters that waive most state regulations.

California was the second state in the country to allow charter schools, in limited numbers, beginning in 1992. As the movement has gained momentum among parents, reformers and political leaders around the nation, the state has modified its rules, paving the way for many more charter schools--almost 250 so far. All will be watched carefully to see how well they can deliver on the promise inherent in the movement: markedly improved learning.

Lennox students, 93% of whom are Latino, do well in the early grades despite living in crowded, gang-plagued neighborhoods. The unincorporated community of 30,000 is home to many recent immigrants from Mexico and other Central and South American countries. Many families live in poverty, and a big majority of the youngsters arrive at the 6,900-student district’s schools speaking little or no English. Until the school district pioneered programs of its own, many families had no access to health or dental care.

After eighth grade, however, students move on to the large, more impersonal high schools of the Centinela Valley Union High School District in Hawthorne and Lawndale, a long walk from home. At least half of Lennox youngsters drop out, often as early as ninth grade, educators estimate.

“Parents feel comfortable sending their children here, and they seem to like the idea of having another option for high school,” said Sal Gumina, principal of the 2,000-student Lennox Middle School. “When we had a presentation [on the new charter school] after an open house one night last spring, there was standing room only.”

Lennox Supt. Bruce McDaniel said the district is looking forward to working closely with the new high school and applauds its emphasis on leadership training, small classes and dedicated staff members, two of whom are coming from the middle school staff.

“It all will come down to the quality of the people that work there . . . that will make or break the success of the high school,” McDaniel said.

At the new high school, classes will be in session from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and tutoring will be offered until 5 p.m. each day. In addition to core academic subjects aimed at preparing students for college, there will be a leadership course to prepare them to become active in their community. Parents will be required to attend school meetings, and to provide time and a place for their children to study.

After their initial hopes of finding space on the Loyola Marymount campus fell through, Animo leaders found classroom space to rent at the University of West Los Angeles, a law school near the airport that holds its classes at night. Founders expect that a grant from boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya’s foundation will provide free bus transportation from home to Animo and to school events at Loyola Marymount and elsewhere.

Classes will be small, and school leaders promise students and their families a strong voice in how Animo is run.

There are some unusual elements. Each student, for example, will get a laptop computer. And school founders have contracted with a private firm for administrative services so Principal Carlos Jimenez, a noted history and Mexican American studies teacher from East Los Angeles’ Garfield High School, can focus on education matters. Students will be offered paid internships during summers.

Initial plans called for starting with 100 freshmen, then adding another class of 100 each year until ninth-through-12th-grade enrollment reached 400. But interest ran so high that founders decided to take 125 students this year and now are weighing whether they can accommodate 140 without sacrificing program quality.

“We’d like to be able to take everyone who wants to be here,” said Steve Barr of Venice, who founded the nonprofit Green Dot Public Schools, which will run Animo.

School Seeks Students Interested in College

Barr, 40, has been involved in politics all his adult life. He co-founded Rock the Vote, the successful 1990 drive to get young people to register and go to the polls. He once ran for California Democratic Party chairman.

Barr mentored students in Los Angeles’ urban core and got bitten by the charter school bug when working with Silicon Valley educator reformers. Among them was San Carlos School District Supt. Don Shalvey, who helped oversee the state’s first charter school and whose University Public Schools organization is embarking on a plan to build 100 charter schools throughout the state. Shalvey is serving on the five-member board that will oversee Animo High.

For Animo, Barr sought out students who are motivated--willing to spend long days on campus and do at least two hours worth of homework each night, and interested in going to college. While some of the students already exhibit good academic skills, others “have a lot of catching up to do,” Barr said.

The students who signed up for Animo also are willing to give up some of the fun things that go with traditional high schools--big sports programs and lots of clubs.

Danny Espinoza, 14, said he chose Animo at the urging of his two older brothers, who attend Hawthorne High.

“I know I’ll miss out on a lot of things, but I think I will have opportunities to do other things that are going to pay off later on,” Danny said.

Christina Diaz, 14, who was headed to Leuzinger High in Lawndale before signing up for Animo, said she is confident she can help organize activities there. “My friends and I are thinking of starting a basketball team,” she said.

Patrick Atherton, 13, at first was torn between Animo and a traditional high school, which he felt might give him a better chance to parlay his skill on the clarinet into a college music scholarship. But he was heartened by Animo’s pledge to provide a music program.

“I also like the idea of smaller classes and getting more attention from teachers,” he said.

Part of the appeal to parents is Animo’s relationship with Loyola Marymount, which has had a popular mentoring and tutoring program with Lennox students for years.

The program, El Espejo, was started by Pam Rector, a longtime middle school counselor who now works at Loyola Marymount, and by Armando Mena, then a Loyola student who now teaches science at the middle school. He will join the Animo faculty over the summer.

As the son of immigrants from Mexico, Mena, who grew up in Inglewood, said he wants to help students with a similar background succeed.

“I can identify with these kids, and I want to be a role model for them,” Mena said.

Loyola Marymount’s School of Education is working closely with Animo on several fronts, including curriculum planning, helping teachers and developing activities that bring Animo students onto the college’s campus regularly.

“The whole goal is to help these students think about going to college,” said Shane Martin, one of two assistant professors of education who are working with Animo. “Given they are first-generation immigrants, the vast majority don’t have a role model of a family member that has gone to college.”

Animo’s operating budget will come largely from state funds. In addition to the roughly $4,500 per student, based on attendance, that California gives public high schools, Animo has received a $150,000 start-up grant and a $250,00 facilities loan from state programs for new charter schools.

Barr is working on raising the remaining $300,000 the school needs this year from private sources.

Patrick Atherton’s mother, Laura Atherton, knows starting a school from scratch won’t be easy. She was a member of the Lennox Board of Education while the charter was being developed.

“Starting any new school is tough,” said Atherton, who carefully weighed the pros and cons of sending Patrick to Animo.

“There are going to be bumps in the road, especially in the first year,” she concluded, “but after that, it’s going to be awesome.”