School Rings In New Year With High Expectations

Every pupil’s desk was stacked with books, including a big dictionary, inside Mrs. Walling’s second-grade classroom at Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica on Tuesday, the first day of the school year.

To trial lawyer Albert Karel, the sight of the books atop 20 tiny desks brought an assurance that his son, Danny, 7, was headed for another “great school year” at Franklin.

“Danny came out of first grade just a wonderful reader,” said the proud father. “He reads every day. He reads aloud with feeling and it’s wonderful.”

This year, Karel’s goal for his “one and only son” is to see him write “really well.”

At Franklin Elementary School, where test scores are high, classrooms and school grounds are immaculate, and mostly affluent parents are very involved in their children’s education, a collective challenge for the new school year is continuing what it does well and, where possible, improving on it.

Last year, the school earned a 10, the highest score, on the state’s accountability index.

“We hold high expectations for all the students,” said Principal Patricia A. Samarge, who began as a classroom teacher in Santa Monica more than three decades ago. “Teachers maintain that everybody can do it.”

Supt. Neil Schmidt of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District said other schools in his district are performing well but called Franklin “outstanding.”

Franklin, which has 850 students, kindergarten through fifth grade, is at the corner of Montana and 24th streets in a neighborhood of spacious homes and tall pine trees. Its student body is 80% white, 9% Asian, 7% Latino and 4% African American.

Like Karel, many parents who accompanied their youngsters to the salmon-colored school Tuesday live in the neighborhood.

But others, like Norma Nelgar, an immigrant from El Salvador, travel a long way for their children’s education.

Nelgar drives in from Canoga Park with her daughter, Brenda, a second-grader, and son, Rick, a fifth-grader. After dropping them off, she is off to work as a nanny in Santa Monica. After work, she picks them up.

Nelgar says she appreciates not only the excellent teaching her children receive at Franklin but also the music and sports programs and after-school child care.

“That really helps because both my husband and I work,” said Nelgar, whose children attend Franklin by permit. “Education means everything to us because we want our children to have a better life.”

Reflecting the region’s international flavor, one new third-grader at Franklin on Tuesday was Jong-Seok Ahn, 9, who hails from Seoul. His father, neurosurgeon Sung-Ki Ahn, is spending this academic year as a visiting professor at UCLA Medical School.

Jong-Seok does not speak much English yet, but his parents are hopeful that he will learn. They want him to have an enriching experience of attending school with such a diverse group of students.

On the term’s first day, colorfully decorated classrooms reflected teachers’ different emphases and styles.

To welcome her second-graders, Cheryl Walling put on the bulletin board, “All About Me,” a letter combined with a brief biography, photos and mementos.

In it she told her pupils of her fondness for teddy bears and apples, how many children she has and how long she had taught (18 years) at Franklin.

In the days to come, Walling will have all the students introduce themselves and their families through the bulletin board.

In her class, she will emphasize literacy and math, as well as cooperation, getting along and enthusiasm for learning, she said.

“I want them to know all the wonderful joys of reading and research and all the things they can find out through books,” Walling said.

Gracing her bulletin board was a mountain habitat, showing pictures of animals, and a quote from Indian Chief Seattle, who reminded his people: “This earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.”

Some parents said their children were so excited about the first day of school that they were up at dawn.

“Brenda got up at 5 o’clock,” Nelgar said. “Then, while I took a shower, she made a lunch for herself.”

Raymond Fitzpatrick, whose two children, John, 10, and Katy, 8, attend the school, said his priority this year is to get his children to school on time.

“That’s a challenge for a single dad,” he said.

Dina Silver, whose son, Ben Persky, 9, is a fifth-grader, said her goal for her boy is: “Learn a lot, have a great time, and enjoy. It’s a fantastic school.”

But she and another parent, Deb Love, said they would like to see the class size for fourth and fifth grade decrease from the present 32 to 20.

“We’d love to see that happen too,” Samarge said, adding that only the state can make that decision and provide adequate funding.