Mar Vista Parents Mixed on New Charter Middle School in Venice

For those Mar Vista parents concerned about sending their children to troubled Mark Twain Middle School, this fall will offer a new option. After five years of negotiations with the LAUSD, Green Dot Public Schools was finally granted permission Feb. 1 to open the Animo Westside charter middle school in September in nearby Venice. The school will share its campus with the existing Westminster Elementary School at 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd.

Barbara Einstein, a Venice mother with three daughters in fifth grade, was among the parents happy to hear of the school's opening. "Because it's the first year, I would hope that our chances [of getting in] are good," she said. 

Like all charters, which are public schools that receive funding from the state and offer enrollment to students regardless of where they live, Animo will hold a lottery for admission if it receives more applications than it has spots.  

Einstein had been concerned about sending her daughters to Twain, which has had a less than glowing reputation. The charter school will now offer a much-needed public school alternative.

But not all Mar Vista parents are in favor of the new school. Sarah Auerswald, who writes the MarVistaMom blog as well as for Patch, said that although she'd heard about Green Dot schools, it wasn't something she was considering for her two children, one of whom is already in middle school.

"I probably wouldn't send my child there," she said, mostly because of the shared campus space with Westminster Elementary. "I always worry about co-location on a school site."

Bill Ring, a Mar Vista resident whose children are grown but who still volunteers in various capacities connected to education in the community, is taking a wait and see attitude because he feels there are good and bad charter schools.

"If we're talking about an equal playing field [between a good charter school and a regular public school], absolutely I think parents will flock to this," he said.

Both Einstein and Ring cited concerns that Twain, with which the Animo Westside school will compete for students, has had a poor reputation in the past. At the same time, both seemed impressed with Twain's new principal, Rex Patton.

"I think he knows very well what that school needs. He is remarkably talented," Ring said. "I have every confidence in Rex Patton, if he's on the same page with the staff and the parents and the community and he probably is on the way to doing that."

Indeed, Einstein said that Twain would be her second choice if her daughters do not get in to Animo Westside, because she would rather her daughters go to a public school to which they can walk or ride their bikes.

Einstein added that although she was concerned about the academics at Twain, she had been to a meeting and taken a tour of the school and was  impressed with Patton. "The new principal is [very] different [than the previous one]," she said.

Patton told Patch that he isn't even  thinking about the potential impact of the new charter school. "I know what I'm trying to do here and I'm trying to stay focused on that," he said. "There are very good charter schools and there are very good public schools, so I'm not trying to involve myself."

According to Douglas Weston, director of development and communications at Green Dot Public Schools, a middle school for the Venice area has been in the company's sights for a while.

"We have fought for five years to get a middle school into that area," he said. And although he said that sharing a campus with Westminster Elementary is not ideal, parents not having a choice of middle schools isn't good either. 

"This is what's good for the community in the big picture and we have to think about all of the students," he said. "We've had a good history of being very good neighbors."

Founded in 1999 by Steve Barr, Green Dot Public Schools runs 12 charter high schools, mostly in at-risk areas, including South Los Angeles and Venice, and the Animo Westside school will be its second middle school project.