Culver Park High School – Location, Location, Location

Pat Levinson

After decades of being located on an elementary school campus in Culver City, CCUSD’s continuation school, Culver Park HS, was relocated this summer to an area between Farragut Elementary and Culver City Middle School.

The youths and staff were moving in as construction of the temporary facilities, mostly landscaping, was in the final stages.  So, the Los Angeles Times wrote a “horror story” of just how challenging the conditions were for our youth.  Challenging?  Belmont HS in Los Angeles, with its toxic waste is challenging. A location beside a freeway on or off ramp is challenging.  Neither fits Culver Park HS.

I’ve taught and been an administrator in many school in the past 38 years with the Los Angeles County Office of Education.  My students were “juvenile wards of the court”. Okay, that translates to “juvenile delinquents.” My kind of youth: locked up or perhaps, locked out?  Physical locations included: Juvenile Halls, Probation Camps and Community Schools, many of which I located, opened and closed. Talk about challenging environments! 

Learning is learning and teaching is teaching.  And administrative support (and counseling) is vital to both. As long as youth are safe and healthy (another blog, perhaps), learning can take place almost anywhere.  Can you force youth to learn?  No, but you can persuade, despite, or sometimes because of, the physical environment.  Trust me, juvenile hall is no playground and yet hundreds of youth graduate annually from LACOE schools with their 220 credits.

What we have in CCUSD is a principal of CPHS who wants to be the principal of CPHS:  Veronica Montes.  I don’t title the school as Culver Park Continuation, because continuation school just describes the type of school.  The name of the continuation school is Culver Park HS.  Fifty-seven youth are enrolled, taking the usual high school courses:  English (Basic, Literature, Contemporary Writing, etc,); Social Science (World and US History, Government, Economics, etc.); Science (Earth, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry); Mathematics (Basic, Algebra, Geometry); Art and Physical Education. Each student is required to perform 60 hours (total high school) of service learning in order to graduate with 220 credits. With a class size ratio max of 20 to 1, who wouldn’t want to be in this school?

The school and students enjoy having four dedicated teachers – who want to be there.  No, they haven’t been sent to the cornfield for being poor teachers elsewhere.  Like I, who opted to instruct in the juvenile court facilities, these teachers enjoy the challenge of teaching multiple subjects to youth who need creative strategies other than a “get to class, stop wandering the hallway, where are you going” environment. (Sorry, regular HS, just trying to make a point.)  Students are 16 and older, usually in the 11^th and 12^th grades, sometimes making up classes from the 9^th and 10^th grades.  Each teacher has to be competent in their areas so that each youth can receive the required classes.  Wow, tailored classes!  How cool is that?

Let us praise Ms. Lanier, Ms. Johnson, Ms. Matilda and Ms. Bentsvi who want to be those teachers, who want to be there.  We praise all teachers who want to be where they do their best work!  As I shared with Ms. Montes, my favorite grades of youth to work with before my retirement were the middle grades – 6-8.  While she didn’t shudder, she expressed her joy at working with older youth.  Some teachers delight in teaching 1^st or 2^nd grade (I cower), special ed. programs and identified youth, gifted or whomever. We all have our niche. (For those of you pooh-poohing why I enjoyed working with incarcerated youth, grades 7 – 12, when I just expressed my passion for youth in grades 6 – 8, I’d be happy to explain in another blog. Just think about child development…)

Here’s the point:  education includes the physical environment, but it doesn’t stop there. Learning is part of that environment and that’s all about the teachers, the support staff (para-educators, counselors, special education specialists, custodial staff) and administration.

What Culver Park HS youth apparently have is a wonderfully supportive environment – physically, mentally, academically, socially and emotionally.  While I didn’t describe all aspects of that supportive environment, Ms. Montes assures me that the CPHS Student Council is charged with campus beautification.  Ms. Montes declared, “We want the kids to own it.”

The youth will own it, if it’s in partnership with those supportive staff and the community.  It doesn’t matter if they are located on an elementary school campus, in a one-room schoolhouse or in temporary buildings. Are our youth safe and healthy?  I think so.  Therefore, it is with whom they interface and trust that makes the difference. See for yourself. The LA Times overreacted. Why am I not surprised?

Pat Levinson graduated from CCHS when dirt was new.  She received a Teacher Scholarship upon graduation and the rest was history: teaching all subjects and becoming an administrator in Juvenile Hall, Probation Camps and Community Schools for 25 years, teaching and providing educational services to foster youth for 13 years in Los Angeles County; including representing teachers for 13 years with the teachers’ association. Education included: BA from UC Irvine, M.Ed from Azusa Pacific University, and a slew of professional certificates from UCLA and the School of Hard Knocks.  She retired in June 2011 from LACOE as a Project Director for Foster Youth Services, representing all of Los Angeles County’s 81 district schools in their educational services to foster youth to the State. She can be reached at: palevinson@ca.rr.com.  Pat is the recording secretary for the CC Democratic Club and a Board Member of the CC Sister City Committee.