Traffic & safety woes continue at CWC Mar Vista

Yesterday after school, my wife, infant daughter and nephew, who attends CWC, were almost run over in a crosswalk when a CWC parent drove in reverse out of the Lindblade Place cul da sac and continued in reverse through the pedestrian crosswalk on Lindblade Street. The car came so close to them that my wife hit the car’s trunk with her hand to alert the driver to stop. The driver stopped and turned around with an annoyed look. When he realized what happened, he gave an embarrassed shrug before speeding off.

Embarrassed? Really? What is wrong with these citizens? Yes, how embarrassing would it be to have run over my wife, infant daughter and nephew in a crosswalk while driving reverse? When you almost run over someone because of your recklessness, a shrug is not the correct response. A mea culpa for this dangerous behavior should have been in order, but this shameless behavior from the CWC community is not surprising.

CWC has a culture of entitlement that manifests itself as disrespect to the community and a flouting of the law when they are in our neighborhood. During drop off and pick up times our quiet residential street turns into a lawless land where people do whatever they want: drive in the middle of the street, park in the red, block driveways and even drive in reverse down the street among other offenses. It’s not surprising that we are still seeing traffic issues on Lindblade and that the problems are becoming worse.

 Let’s look at few examples from just yesterday:

• Here is a CWC car parked at 7:43 AM in the bus loading zone which begins at 7 AM*

*The CWC father and child entered campus through the Stoner gate and not the CWC entrance.

• Here we have a CWC car parked in front of a driveway

• …and the worst one:

Below is a video sent to me today by a community member, that shows almost the exact same behavior that scared my wife yesterday afternoon, but this incident happened earlier that same day at another intersection. In the video a CWC community member:

• Doesn’t stop at stop sign going south on Stoner Ave.
• Parks in red zone in front of fire hydrant
• Reverses into an intersection
• Drives through a cross walk
• Does not stop at stop sign going west on Lindblade St.*
(*This may not be illegal since he was technically never behind the stop sign because he drove through the crosswalk…oh, right.)

What makes this most infuriating is that this citizen is illegally parked just few feet away from the loading zone that was created for CWC and that upset local residents by taking away parking spot from the community. Why would someone feel so entitled and exempt from the law that they think that this behavior was acceptable? Is this how these worldly citizens behave in their own neighborhood or just ours?

The traffic safety has been an on-going issue with this colocation. On October 16 2013, the Argonaut ran a story on the traffic problems caused by the colocation of Citizens of the World Mar Vista on the Stoner Avenue Elementary campus. It’s been 5 months and just like most all the other complaints against CWC, the situation has only gotten worse.

What can be done about this charter school’s community lack of basic citizenship and the safety problems that it causes? We don’t want to wait until we have a tragedy on the street like happened at CWC Hollywood until something is done about the safety in the neighborhood.

Yesterday, I was very lucky that my family was not hurt or worse. If CWC’s community behavior continues, someone else might not be so lucky.

LCFF plans for Stoner ES

Yesterday, LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer visited Stoner Elementary to a packed library to discuss the LCFF and what funding priorities we would like for Stoner ES. We were very excited to learn that funding will be increasing for the next 8 years. Now, we just need to decide how we would like it used.

 The number one concern for Stoner parents was campus safety, but only in terms of the safety and security issues that are being caused by CWC. While the meeting was intended to be a discussion of the LCFF, the audience kept bring the discussion back to the problems caused by the charter.

Ignoring the problems caused by CWC, Stoner parents priorities include:
-smaller class
-classes in civics
-increase in teacher pay
-music, art & dance
-increase parental involvement and development.
-increase in instruction time

We were also informed that our request for instruments for our school had been placed. We are excited and looking forward to having a strong music and art program at Stoner ES.

Zimmer to visit Stoner tomorrow

ATTENTION blog followers: No need to call the riot police, it's just another announcement of an LAUSD official visiting Stoner ES.
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Tomorrow at 8:30, LAUSD council member Steve Zimmer will be visiting Stoner ES to discuss the LCFF.
   This is a great chance to let LAUSD know how we would like this money spent:
-smaller class sizes
-more instruction time
-dance, music & art programs
-better computers
-sports program
-parental development/education

[Follow up] Deasy visits Stoner (...or what protest?)

I always wonder who reads this blog: there is a person from CWC/CxC, and "3angry" people, but that doesn't account for all the other hits this blog gets.
   The reason I'm curious, is that yesterday for Deasy's visit police cars showed up because the police were told there was going to be protest. Also, an unidentified man walked into the Stoner ES main office in the morning and asked where the protest was.
    This is too funny, because the only place Deasy's visit was announced beforehand was here on this blog. I can only image which concerned CITIZENS are readers of this blog and took it upon themselves to speculate, in fear of the local community and home school, that there would be a protest and call the cops.
     I didn't realize that one of my blog post could create such a stir.
     The real news yesterday, was LAUSD launching the new Smart Balanced computerized test program at Stoner Elementary. More on that in bit.

Deasy to visit Stoner ES this Monday

Word on the street is that John Deasy and some other big wigs will be visiting Stoner Elementary this Monday.  Why? One can only speculate.
   There is a flurry of activity on campus today and the school is being cleaned top to bottom like I've never seen before.

CWC Mar Vista disrespects local charter, church and community all on the same morning

Lack of respect is one of the major problems that the community has been having with CWC. Citizens of the World Charter Mar Vista has culture of entitlement and acts as if the rules don't apply to them. This was on full display on Saturday, March 15.
    On Saturday morning, I noticed the CWC principal and parents gather on campus. Later that morning, my family walked to the local swap meet that is held at the St. Gerard Majella Church parking lot. St. Gerard's is also the campus of a local charter, ICEF Vista.
   When we entered the swap meet, we saw a group of CWC representatives, who were earlier on CWC campus) wearing CWC corporate logo t shirts, handing out fliers and collecting signatures. They were even talking to ICEF families who were on campus after a school sporting event whose children were dressed in ICEF uniform.
    What gall!!! CWC sends its people onto a church's private property which is also the campus of local charter to recruit students from the school. Why would the church or charter want CWC stealing students and hurting their community? Vendors at the swap meet have to pay for their spots, but CWC felt that it had every right to be there conduct their business, recruit, handout propaganda and bother people shopping . Who does CWC think they are?
    I was shocked to see this and I was not the only one. Other community members and swap meet patrons were loudly complaining about CWC's presence, but no one was coming forward to say anything to the CWC people.
     Finally, some community members went up to engage the CWC people and things started getting heated. "We aren't like you people!" yelled someone from CWC to a Hispanic mother who was questioning the group. Not like you people...really, how classy and inclusive CWC, and yet you want to invade and take over our neighborhood, steal students from other schools and then pretend like you are part of the community and here to serve it?
     Things were getting bad and I saw this needed to end right away before things got worse. I stepped in and asked the CWC people if they had permission to be on campus. To which the CWC group quickly and unequivocally responded "Yes." I asked who gave them permission. Suddenly, they did not have a confident answer. I told them they were on private property and that ICEF would probably not be happy that they were recruiting students on their campus.I told them they could stand outside on the public sidewalk. The group reluctantly slinked off  as parents walked them out of the church lot.

Another week, another CWC parent seen in STUDENTS ONLY bathroom

 When I was walking my daughter home from school on Monday, a Stoner ES parent came up and told me that they had seen another CWC parent in the bathroom last Friday, but that's not even today's story. Today's story began a little earlier on Monday. 

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   I guess it really shouldn't come as a surprise anymore, but yesterday I saw a CWC parent coming out of the shared students only bathroom.
    I don't know why Citizens of the World Charter Mar Vista can't act like proper citizens and follow rules.
    What does surprise me though, is that I keep finding these problems. During the day, I am at work, but it seems that just about any school day that I am home, I find a safety problem with CWC.  Maybe it's just a coincidence that every time I pass by there is a problem, but after so many examples, it just seems to be a pattern of bad behavior by the CWC community.

      So, what happened? I came home sick from work. When I passed by the CWC entrance I saw the music teacher, the same one who was seen in the students' bathroom, entering campus. I decided to keep an eye on the student bathroom from the sidewalk outside campus in case he "forgot" the rules again. I readied by telephone to take video and thought I had a minute before he might be near the bathroom.
     As I was waiting, I saw some students exit the bathroom and some others enter. Then a gentleman exited the students' only bathroom. I was so shocked I didn't have time to hit record before the man walked off toward the CWC area of campus.
     I immediately reported the incident to both Stoner and CWC administration.

     Why is this still happening? 188 letters were written to LAUSD and CWC that listed bathroom safety as a major issue. A protest was held demanding safer conditions on campus. Stoner parents met with CWC administration. The Stoner and CWC parent liaison groups met and discussed this issue. New signs were made and posted in the bathroom and, yet, the same behavior continues.
      The new proposed solution is to have Stoner and CWC parents act as bathroom monitors. I have two problems with that: 1) CWC is the cause of the problem, how can we trust them to police the bathroom when they don't respect the rules? 2) Why should Stoner parents have to spend their time policing the bathroom when the problem is wholly caused by CWC?
      CWC is threat to safety on the Stoner Elementary campus and it is sad that we have to police their behavior on campus in order for our children to be safe. Instead of parents having to waste their precious time policing a danger on campus, LAUSD should remove this dangerous entity.