A winter of discontent at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys has given way to a spring of discord.
Next, it appears, is the summer of dissolution.
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Birmingham High could signal a new direction at L.A. Unified
Reform efforts underway at the district's largest campus could lead to multiple small schools operating under one roof. One thing is certain: the status quo is not an option.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 2 inches; 60 words Type of Material: Correction
Birmingham High: An article in Monday's Section A about efforts to convert Birmingham High School to a charter school omitted the first name and description of Jorge Montijo, who is a counselor. It also said Montijo had accused Principal Marcia Coates of intimidating teachers. Montijo was not among those naming Coates; he said teachers aligned with Coates were intimidating colleagues.
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The school of 3,200 students is undergoing a fierce struggle over its future and, in a sense, over the destiny of public education in Los Angeles.
On the one side are the principal and perhaps a majority of teachers, who want to leave the Los Angeles Unified School District and open in the fall as an independent charter. On the other: the union representative, teachers in a magnet program and others who say the school should become part of a new district reform branch that gives some campuses more leeway to improve.
Both sides say the other is using hardball tactics -- sabotage, slander, intimidation -- that have shattered civility and strained collegiality.
It seems almost certain that Birmingham High will be a different place in the fall, probably split into more than one school.
At the urging of Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, teachers who support converting the school to a charter agreed last week to exclude the school's magnet program from their plans. That removes a major stumbling block to reaching an accord that would allow both the charter and the magnet, and possibly other schools, to coexist on one campus.
Whether they could coexist happily is another matter.
Birmingham in many ways represents the solid middle of Los Angeles Unified, with test scores that are just below the district average, but rising at a faster rate, and an ethnic makeup -- 71% Latino, 12% white, 9% black -- that is close to that of the district overall. What is happening there reflects a near desperation for reform that is seizing many schools.
Although there is clearly disagreement over the future, there are no loud voices in favor of the status quo -- not even from Cortines, who said Friday that the district has been too resistant to charter schools. If it would give schools an economic boost, he said in an interview, "I'll look at chartering this entire district."
That, of course, is very unlikely, but the fact that the superintendent would even say such a thing suggests the tenor of a time in which traditional L.A. Unified schools face dire budgetary challenges, a rising dropout rate, deep dissatisfaction over academic performance and growing competition from charters, which are public schools run independently from district management.
