For the past five years, Barbara Einstein, a parent of four girls at Walgrove Avenue Elementary, has fretted over where her daughters would go to middle school. She and fellow parents from Walgrove, Beethoven, Couer d’Alene and other area elementary schools agitated for change at Mark Twain Middle School, and when that didn’t seem to be happening fast enough, they began to cast around for other options for their children.

Three of Einstein’s daughters are finishing up fifth grade and will be moving on in the fall to Animo West Side Middle School, a new Green Dot charter school on the campus of Cowan Avenue Elementary in Westchester. Green Dot is one of the largest charter school organizations operating within the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Green Dot CEO Marco Petruzzi, who lives in Venice, said that the charter school operator is creating the middle school “because parents deserve to have a choice when it comes to one of the most important decisions that you can make as a parent." And, he adds, “There is a need for quality choice options, particularly in Venice.”

To Einstein, “choice” is the key if you believe in public schools.

“I think it's good to have a choice because not each school model fits your child,” she said.

Einstein was concerned that her daughters might not get the support they would need at a large middle school. With three sons already in college and beyond, Einstein says she knows that in middle school things change.

“They want to be independent,” she said. “They will not want to have their mothers at school all the time. That's why it's even more important that you know that they can’t go under the radar. I simply believe in smaller schools ... for my girls.”

Animo West Side Middle School was supposed to have been located in Venice, but when the LAUSD offered the school classrooms at Westminster Avenue Elementary, parents at that school were very upset, worrying that the progress they had made to revive their neighborhood elementary and magnet school would be impeded by having to share the campus.

The district backtracked, and now the new middle school will be temporarily housed at Cowan, with Green Dot providing free busing from Mar Vista and Venice area schools.

Both Petruzzi and Einstein are eager to hear from the LAUSD about the middle school's permanent home. There are several charter schools on the Westside looking for space in which they can grow, and not a lot of affordable or suitable land. Although many area parents want to send their children to charters, many others are anxious to preserve the integrity of the neighborhood and magnet schools where their children attend.

Petruzzi says Animo West Side Middle School will offer a college preparatory curriculum for all its students. Einstein is pleased that the school has already done assessments for her daughters, and will hold a two-week bridge program over the summer to help prepare them and determine their academic needs.

The curriculum will focus on the core subjects of English, math, science and social science using state standards. Each school day features an extra class period for students who need it in math or English; students who are already proficient in those subjects will get advanced topics, such as technology, drama and composition.

Einstein knows that at a bigger school her girls might have more course and extracurricular options, but for this mom the choice of a small school close to home trumps all that.