Please accept our apologies for the long delay since our last newsletter. In writing you now, I am reminded that it has been just 1 year since we held our first community meeting at the Geffen Playhouse. At that meeting, we talked about the opportunity we have to work with our neighborhood schools and our goal to achieve outstanding public education for our children. We stressed the importance of having the necessary leadership within our schools and a partnership with the community. In the last year, we have made significant progress.

1) Emerson Middle School Strategy

Many of you have been asking how things are going at Emerson with their new principal. To answer briefly, Act4Education has been hard at work with Principal Gonnella over the last few months to establish a strategy and set forth a timeline on achieving our common goals of outstanding education for all students, safe schools and bringing our community back to Emerson. Principal Gonnella has outlined a number of different programs to achieve these goals, including the “above the line” program to improve student behavior in the classroom and on the playground, as well as outside educational programs that can be brought in to enhance academic achievement. It is too early to see results and even too early to be specific on which programs will be brought in. Needless to say that there is a lot of work ahead and change will not occur overnight. As we move forward from here, Act4Education will follow Principal Gonnella’s lead in executing her strategy for change. We hope that our community will contribute to the efforts to improve Emerson. If you are interested in helping, please contact Andrea Gehring (andrea@wwcot.com 310-804-5294).

2) New Principal at University High School

As you might have heard, University High School, Westwood’s local high school, will have a new principal. The current principal, Elois McGehee, is moving on to a LAUSD administrative position and we wish her well. Uni HS teachers, students, parents and Act4Education participated in selecting the new high school principal, Mr. Davidson who is currently Vice Principal of Westchester High School. With change comes new opportunities, and Act4Education welcomes Eric Davidson to the position.

3) Lower class size and new programs at Webster Middle School

Act4Education is looking for ways to support Webster since it is a feeder school to Uni HS.  Webster is also the middle school for part of Westwood Charter and Overland Elementary schools.  While few in our neighborhood send their kids there, Webster has been undergoing a lot of change.  Webster has received new state funds to lower the student-teacher ratio to 25:1.  In addition, Principal Wallace is bringing in Big Picture Schools, a national charter school organization, to implement some exciting new educational programs.  Webster's new principal has been at the helm for just over 2 years now, and I think we can expect to see some exciting changes and results in the near future.

4) Our public schools want our community back

In summary, public school continues to be a compelling option for many given the high costs of private school, the desire to see our children, their friends and their neighbors attend school together as a community, and the growing pressures to get admission to public schools in surrounding neighborhoods like Beverly Hills and Pacific Palisades. If you have heard that bussing has been declining and is close to zero at our local public schools, you have heard correctly. Please remember that the catchment area for our local public schools is large and draws from diverse communities. The most important point here is that enrollment in our local public schools has been declining, which not only means that there is room for our children but also that our local public schools NEED our community to come back.

As Act4Education moves forward, please stay tuned and help us energize our community to make the most of our neighborhood public schools.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Wong

President, Act4Education