LAUSD’s Monica Garcia unveils new district goals

Article in this week's Sun Community Newspapers - www.studiocitysun.com

LAUSD’s Monica Garcia unveils new district goals
BY NAZBANOO PAHLAVI

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board President Monica Garcia addressed members of the Studio City Chamber of Commerce at their monthly First Friday Club meeting January 4 at the Daily Grill in Studio City.

The gathering marked Garcia’s first community appearance in 2008.

Garcia, 39, shared stories from her educational path growing up in East Los Angeles and attending UC Berkeley. “There were so many Garcias in the Chicano studies classes that I got somebody else’s ‘F,’” she recalled.

Garcia received a heavy dose of identity politics at the school, whose emphasis on pushing minority quotas led to her now-amusing realization that “I was a person of color, which I had no idea.”

She joked that she was “shocked that my life was so much in peril” growing up as a Latina in a working class family in the barrio – labels that identified who she was as a person.

The experience, she said, fuels her drive to “change the belief system” in the LAUSD to put the 50 percent dropout rate into perspective rather than just viewing it as a statistic.

Garcia, along with a school board that was newly elected last May, has worked with Superintendent David Brewer III to devise a strategic plan that would change the course of the LAUSD.

“We do a very, very good job in L.A. with some kids,” Garcia said, citing Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School downtown as one of 28 national blue medal schools.

But despite such exceptional standouts, LAUSD still failed to meet three out of 46 yearly California assessment criteria that included language arts for special education, language arts for English learners, and graduation rates. “LAUSD cannot stay the same,” said Garcia.

As a result, the board has devised an eight-part resolution to move LAUSD forward and bring about needed change. The resolutions include recruiting top-notch teachers, training principals and administrators, paying employees on time, and refocusing facility use.

To address the low graduation rate, the “Diplomas for All” resolution has set the bar high – a graduation goal of 100 percent by 2015. To keep the district in check, a system of metrics will be used to evaluate its progress during reports to the community.

“We have an imperative to change our graduation results. We have an imperative to be the district of choice for teachers and principals and parents,” said Garcia, who said she was excited to be involved in Los Angeles education.

Garcia said the LAUSD is currently waiting to hear from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, since 80 percent of the district’s funding comes from the state level. “Our challenge today, really, we have to wait for Sacramento to tell us how much pain we’re going to endure with this budget crisis.”