ICEF co-location traffic woes

ICEF Vista co-location brings traffic and safety issues:
4 cars enter the intersection of Stoner and Lindblade,
all four corners are coned off by ICEF

During the previous co-location, traffic and safety in the neighborhoods were the issues that initially alerted local residents to the problem of charter school co-location.

   We are once again seeing the same traffic and safety issues with the co-location of ICEF Vista.  ICEF parents are blocking crosswalks, parking in front of fire hydrants and generally bringing the same parking and safety issues as the previous co-location.
  The growing frustration with the parking situation has already led to some confrontations between ICEF and local residents, including an ugly incident I reported on where an ICEF parent hurled a racial slur at a neighbor.

  The first month of school was great. The parking in front of my house was always open and I had no traffic on my street. Those first few weeks, I would see the ICEF Principal or Vice Principal standing out on our street instructing ICEF parents not to drive that way.  Word on the street has it that ICEF was also telling its people not to park directly in front of my house.
   That was great for me but unfortunately, this meant that the traffic and parking issues were just being forced on the houses south of Stoner Avenue, and that is something I not cool with. I don't want to just move the problem down the street and have it effect my neighbor's quality of life.

    Now, that the honeymoon period of the first few weeks of school have passed, ICEF's community is falling into the same pattern of the previously co-located charter. Traffic and safety laws are being routinely ignored by the ICEF community. I am not hanging out on my street all day, every day, but it seems that every time I pass by I see an ICEF parent braking the law in the neighborhood.

    Here are just a few examples of what we are seeing:

2 car from ICEF block 1 driveway. 1 of the cars is in the red

ICEF parents parks in front of driveway while picking up a student

ICEF parent parks in red and in the cross walk to pick up student after school

ICEF parent parked in the bus zone at 7:45 AM.

Another ICEF car parked in the bus zone at 3:22 PM

ICEF car parked in red and obstructing view of the crosswalk from around the bend.

ICEF parent parks in front of fire hydrant to pick up student

Another ICEF parent parks in front of fire hydrant for pick up

ICEF Vice Principal Pope speaks to driver.

Is ICEF violating co-location agreement?

Right now, ICEF Vista has volunteer parents cleaning up the Stoner Avenue Elementary School campus.While this might sound like a good thing, ICEF might be acting in violation of the co-location agreement with LAUSD and ICEF Vista Director Kristen Buczek should already knows this.

ICEF Vista Director Buczek having parents
perform facilities duties in violation of co-location contract

   At the June 5, Campus Co-location Committee meeting, Buczek specifically asked if she could have volunteer ICEF parents clean (i.e. perform facilities work) the campus.
   Ms. Buzcek was told that no she could not have parents volunteers perform facilities work since: 1) the co-location agreement clearly states that LAUSD is in charge of facilites on the entire campus including the charter's part of campus and 2) giving facilities work to volunteer parents would take away work from unionized LAUSD employees.
    However, today Ms Buzcek appeared to ignore the terms of the co-location agreement and the recommendation of the CCC and chose to use ICEF Vista parents to perform the work she was told they could not do.

ICEF parent's truck parked on campus
 while parent performs facilities work

    Through the fence, I addressed Buzcek and asked what was going on. She said they were volunteer parents and "they are cleaning up..." before her words trailed off.
   I reminded her that she had already been told at the campus co-location committee meeting that parents could not perform facilities duties.  She quickly changed her tune and said that they were leaving and denied saying that they were cleaning.
   Fortunately, in the video I took of the interaction you can clearly hear her say "they are cleaning" and see her point to leaves on the ground. Plus, the parents are holding a broom, rake and trash can. One parent was later seen hauling trash bags full of pine needles.

   Wow, it appears that ICEF may be violating the terms of the co-location agreement.

Buckle your seatbelts and make sure your devices are full charged, this is going to be an awesome adventure in co-location!***



***post updated 9/4/2015 to remove potential defamatory language per cease and desist letter from ICEF's attorney.

ICEF Vista amateur hour: Campus Co-location Committee follies

This year, LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortinez is trying a new way to handle the problems created by charter co-locations. He is requiring schools with co-locations to create a CAMPUS CO-LOCATION Committee (CCC) that would contain the plant manager, both schools principals, lead teachers and parent representatives from both the district and charter school. The committee's purpose is to: (1) create the Shared Use Agreement between district and charter school, and (2) incorporate the charter into the District safe school plan.
    On January 23, 2015, Superintendent Ramon Cortinez sent out a letter (see images) to all charter principals whose school had been given a preliminary co-location offer. In the letter, Cortinez lays out the timeline and steps that will be required.
   The last two items in the timeline are that in May the schools will form a CCC and the group will meet before the Memorial Day weekend.  LAUSD ESC West set up an initial meeting on May 21 for schools with co-locations on the Westside, including Stoner and ICEF. Stoner representatives showed up, but ICEF did not.
   In order to get the ball rolling, Stoner scheduled a meeting directly with ICEF for Friday, June 5. ICEF showed up with a member of the board, the ICEF Vista director and two teachers. They were unaware of the CCC requirements, claiming they never received the letter and objected to the presence of a Stoner parent at the meeting.  ICEF also claimed that they had not received an invitation to the May 21 meeting to which the LAUSD Prop 39 representative responded with a sign and and a "No."
      So, the meeting technically wasn't the first CCC meeting since the CCC contains the plant manager, ICEF principal and ICEF Charter  parents.  However, the ICEF representatives did try to begin working on Use Agreement.

   A few items were discussed, and ICEF's lack of basic knowledge regarding the co-location were troubling to say the least.
   ICEF Director Buczek began negotiations by suggesting having similar start times.  I objected citing traffic and safety issues, and also noted that because of the tension between the  two schools, we would want time between the schools'  start times. (Besides, ICEF had told their community that there would be a definite divide between the school and similar start times would not allow for their desired divide.)
  The issue of  campus clean up came up and ICEF director suggested that a parent or staff could clean up their side of campus. I objected, and pointed out that the final agreement specifically states that LAUSD will handle all campus maintenance for the charter.
 This made me question, had the ICEF staff even read the agreement?

  One thought keep coming to me during the meeting, "What is this, amateur hour?" ICEF Vista staff were unprepared and lacked basic understanding about what they were getting in to. It was very disheartening to witness.  If this is what we are seeing before the co-location, what can we expect for next year?
   Last time we saw what a "Sak Fifth Avenue" charter school who didn't know the rules could do: escaped children; student stripped and hose on campus. What will ICEF, a "99 cents" charter do this year?

The COW's are coming to Saturn: Citizens Of the World Mar Vista tries another co-location

Citizen of the World Mar Vista is going interplanetary:

The COW herd is moo-ving to Saturn Elementary

    Recently, we've been seeing variations on the search query "Where will Citizens of the World Mar Vista be located next year?" leading people to this blog.  It seems that the Citizens of the World (COW) community wants to know where they will be next year since St. Joan of Arc did not work out so well. I guess the administration isn't being forthcoming and so the COW community is stampeding to this blog for answers.
     You can whoa doggies!...because we've got what your looking for.
     I learned today, that COW will be co-locating at Saturn Street Elementary for 2015/16. The campus places COW 6 miles away from its namesake, Mar Vista. While the COWs might believe themselves to be enlightened citizens of this world, I wonder how they'll fare on Saturn.
    The Saturn community is not pleased and has already begun the battle cry "The COW's are coming!" Saturn is preparing for the COW occupation.

    Saturn was told a white washed version of why COW was no longer co-located at Stoner. The official reason was a missed deadline. However, as the Saturn community has learned about the COW's Adventure in Charter Co-location at Stoner, they have become very concerned.

   Will COW also create traffic and safety issues?  Will the COW's bring their entitled, elitist mentality?  Will the COW heard bring separate and unequal conditions on campus? Will the COW parents and teachers refuse to follow the rules?  Will the COW being stripping students naked and hosing them down on campus?

    While we are glad that the COWs are no longer at Stoner, we are truely sorry that Saturn will have to deal with these COWs.

100th blog post!

Woo-hoo! This is the 100th published blog post for Adventures in Charter School Co-location.
   When I started this blog a year ago, I never really figured this would help end the charter co-location. I thought I might write two or three posts and abandon it, but somehow here we are a year and a 100 postings later.
    One of the more popular stories for most of the year was a one line post with a picture titled: It's Official #3: Carpetbaggers. However, by the end of the year the story CWC Director to resign tonight eventually took the top spot. There were other popular stories including: Stoner Elementary community to protest CWC co-location, IT'S OFFICIAL - No co-location at Stoner ES for 2014/15, and Naked CWC student hosed down on campus. I also had some favorites I would like to mention the CWC karma tickets, segregated rock conert and the snark edition #2.

  While it's been fun documenting the adventures, I was hoping this blog would be done already, but as Stoner Elementary once again stares down the barrel of a co-location, the community is fighting back and so, I'll be writing about it.