Local Residents Fight to Prevent Charter School at Walgrove Elementary

Over the last several months there’s been a among area residents about whether should be allowed to remain on the premises at , or Green Dot Charter Schools should be given the space at the school that has been allocated under Proposition 39.

While OCS and Green Dot prepare their paper work in time for the Nov. 9 deadline following the by the Los Angeles Unified School District on Sept. 20, there’s a growing group of local area stakeholders who do not want to see any charter school built on the premises.

Eric and Sandi Wise, who live on the corner of Appleton Way by Walgrove Elementary, represent a small but vocal group of people that argue no charter schools should be built in the Mar Vista/Venice area. Under the banner “Neighbors Who Care,” they’ve put together a 16-page PDF and power point presentation (click on the photo to the right to read the entire document) outlining their opposition.

Sandi Wise told Patch that they began doing their research following a meeting in June when they first heard about the LAUSD’s plans to lease out land at Walgrove Elementary.

“A bunch of neighbors jumped on board and started researching,” Wise said. “We wanted to know why were they choosing this piece of land. We’ve already had enough issues related to traffic and parking with Ocean Charter School being on the premises.”

Wise said the issue of parents parking in the red zones and the alley and blocking neighbors’ ingress and egress from their own driveways soon evolved into a much bigger picture.

“It seems that [LAUSD Board Member] Steve Zimmer plans to put a charter in every single school in the area,” Wise said. “And what’s going to happen to our neighborhood?”

Wise said that while part of the RFP states that the LAUSD doesn’t have to accept any of the applications or build anything on the Walgrove property, “I’m sure their plan is to go forward.”

Rather than bring a charter school into the neighborhood, Wise said she’d like to see more attention paid to the already-existing public schools.

“Walgrove needs a cafeteria, the bathrooms at Venice High are disgusting, even worse than those at Venice Beach,” she said. “We want to see better teachers and more of them, smaller class sizes, more support for teachers by way of tax deductions for further education and rewards for excellent performance.”

Wise added that the $7 billion that LAUSD has received in Measure Q funding should be used for these and other upgrades at public schools. 

For now, Wise and her supporters have been sending letters to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, senators, congress people, even President Barack Obama, to try and prevent a charter school being built at Walgrove Elementary.

Part of the letter sent to the mayor reads:

What's happening with our public schools here in West LA is a tragedy. Why are you allowing this to happen? Our neighborhood schools are not over-crowded, we have plenty of charter schools already, and public schools are losing funds every year due to the loss of enrollment from children moving to charters. Why are you allowing another 500-seat charter school to be built here?

Are you aware that we have 560 graduating 5th graders to an available 1,800 6th grade middle spaces within three miles of the intended charter land lease at Walgrove Elementary? With our current economic crisis, is it really in the best interest for LAUSD to even be offering this land lease, which will result in tax dollars being used to build that new charter? I would think you would be putting our tax dollars to better use and upgrading our existing local schools as promised.

If your plan is to hand over public education to charter schools, then just do it. Don't let our public schools suffer this slow and painful death. It's a drain on our students, teachers, and parents.

Wise said she has heard all the pro-charter school arguments but is not swayed.

“We have to try to stand up for what we believe is best for our community,” she said. “And [we] will keep trying to get the word out to as many people as possible.”