Ravitch blog double bump

Ravitch doulbe bump

I was pretty happy when this blog got a Ravitch bump last week.
     I couldn't have imaged that we'd get a second bump straight from Ms. Ravitch herself, nor that the bump would have been so huge. It makes the first bump look minuscule by comparison.
   This second bump helped spread the word about today's protest farther and wider than I could have hoped.
    The support and interest is humbling.

Stoner community to protest ICEF co-location on first day of school

No ICEF Vista co-location at Stoner Elementary

    The Stoner Elementary School community and local neighborhood community are mad about the co-location of ICEF Vista Charter school on the Stoner ES campus.

   The communities will be holding a protest on the first day of school to let the ICEF community know that we are opposed to the co-location. We will be encouraging the ICEF parents to consider other education options including their local public community school or a non-co-located charter.

WHAT: Stoner Elementary Community is holding a:
      RALLY TO SUPPORT STONER ELEMENTARY AND OPPOSE THE CO-LOCATION

WHEN: Monday, August 17, 2015 at 7:30 – 8:30 AM

WHERE: on the corner of Stoner Avenue and Lindblade Street, 90230.

ICEF blowing smoke and starting fires

On Saturday, I noticed some surprising activity on the ICEF co-location section of campus that turned out to be disturbing activity.
   I was driving my family home when I noticed a gentleman by himself unlocking the morning drop off gate on Stoner Avenue, the one that had been put in place during the previous co-location.
     This gate was not supposed to be used as a regular entrance to campus but only for morning drop off. The co-located charter school's entrance is on Lindblade St. I was surprised by this and after dropping off my family, I walked by to check it out.
     As I approached, I saw a lady exit and enter and then the gentleman exit and re-entering.  I snapped picture. He didn't like it and said I needed to stop or he would call the police. I laughed and said he was on a public sidewalk. I asked if Ms. Buczek was on campus.  He said he didn't know who that was. I said she was the principal. He said he didn't work for the school and was just helping "her" as he pointed in the direction of the lady who reentered before him.
    The lady walked back and let me know Buczek was not on campus but said she would text her a message.
    This was disturbing. This man who was not affiliated with ICEF was not only on campus without ICEF administration but was in possession of the campus keys and could let himself on campus.
   What is going on on the ICEF side of campus?

    Sometime a little later that afternoon, my wife was driving by on the way to an errand. The gate was open.  She stopped the car to take a picture when the same gentleman from before walked up to the passenger side of the car where my children where and began blowing smoke in the car while telling my wife she could not take pictures and had to leave. She stopped taking pictures, switched to video and captured a few seconds before moving on to get away from the smoke.
    When she returned from her errand and recounted the incident, I couldn't help but remember the cigarette incident from the previous co-location.  That incident happened at the end of the school year, but tension are already running on hot and smoke is being blown.
     What's the old saying? Where there's smoke, there's fire...
   

The Ravitch blog bump

I noticed a significantly larger number of hits to the blog this past week. I thought with school starting soon people might be checking in, but these numbers didn't make sense. They were just too big.
    I checked the statistics and saw that that people where coming to here from: dianeravitch.net.

    Wow, Adventures in Charter School Co-location got a Ravitch Blog bump! I was excited! What did she write?

    I searched the blog and was a little disappointed at first to find that it wasn't Diane who wrote about us, but that it was a comment in story that was creating all the traffic. dianeravitch.net/2015/08/04/stupid-in-florida. But then again, it was pretty awesome to think that a comment on Diane's blog could create such interest.
    It's interesting to think of all the people I've never met who have been entertained and, hopefully, educated by these co-location adventures and it's humbling to think that some people have found this blog important enough to share with others.

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.

Adventure #2 begins: ICEF invites the community to leave their community

ICEF Vista - ominous presence in the community

    It's been nice having a break from the blog over the summer, but signs of the pending co-location have become unavoidable: new storage trailers have been placed on campus, dozen of new lunch benches have been moved to the ICEF Vista part of campus, LAUSD has been preparing the co-location rooms, and there is even an ICEF wifi network coming from the campus.
   So, it looks like the adventure is ready to begin anew and ICEF has already made their first ham-fisted misstep.
   
     In a move all to reminiscent of follies of the CWC Mar Vista colocation, yesterday, ICEF Vista sent representatives to the neighborhood around Stoner Elementary to hand out fliers and invite members of the community to a potluck to meet the ICEF community.
   Needless to say, a few of the local community members responded to the invitation by expressing their concern and dismay at ICEF's choice to colocate at Stoner.
   In one exchange with a neighbor, an ICEF community member expressed the absurd notion that they would be fine with their child losing resources so that another school could co-locate.This person is either a liar or a fool, and the fact that they were out
shilling for ICEF does not bode well for this coming school year.
   In fact, this whole event seems rather disingenuous.  There is no mention of ICEF or of the co-location at Stoner. It makes it seem as if there is a seperate community group called "Our community united" that is not affiliated with ICEF, that want the community to meet the community.   If I didn't know this came ICEF, I would have no clue what this is and would probably think it was a scam.
    Considering that they are claiming to be "our community," why are they holding the event far outside of our neighborhood and community? If the point of the event is to smooth over concern about the co-location by putting a human face on their community, then why isn't ICEF having this event in neighborhood such as at Stoner, where they will be co-located, or how about at the ICEF Vista campus at St. Gerard, which is also in the neighborhood?

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?