Culver City Schools: Why Not?

Hello Culver City.   Today is my first blog write-up for Patch, and I’d like to start by introducing myself, why I am blogging, and the perspective from which I will write.

I am a Culver City resident of 11 years, who is obsessively proud of our city and intently interested in its welfare.  I have been married for almost 13 years, and have two children; my oldest will be attending Culver City Middle School in the fall, and my youngest will be entering 4^th grade at El Marino Language School.

The primary focus of my blog entries will be on the Culver City Unified School District.  I am a trustee on the Culver City Education Foundation, and my children will attend CCUSD schools until they graduate from Culver City High School.

I am passionate about the value of a public school education.  And I feel the biggest threat to our public schools is the loss our students to charter and private schools.  I feel this is a bigger threat than the receding allotment of funding we receive from Sacramento.

With this in mind, it is my goal to keep Patch’s readers informed of all the opportunities that our schools provide, positive attributes that you may not find at any charter or private school.  I feel that many parents who may be concerned about Culver City’s schools haven’t taken the time to investigate whether their fears are justified, or they haven’t weighed the positives versus the negatives of each option.

There are definitely cases where children are not a good fit for CCUSD schools. Maybe a child has special needs, either developmentally challenged or extremely gifted.  However, I have to say that I’ve met kids who fall under both categories and have thrived in CCUSD.

The bottom line is that you are not compromising the quality of your child’s education by keeping them in our public schools, and what you gain by keeping them here is so valuable. 

The sense of community from being able to have your children’s classmates live just a few blocks away is so comforting.  I can’t imagine our life with the added inconvenience and stress of schlepping one or both of our kids across West Los Angeles to another school.  And in this city, we have actually had two teachers and a principal who are also residents.  Believe me, it makes a difference, and where else can you get that?

I want to float a theory here, and have people weigh in on it:

My theory is that a school’s measureable performance statistics are more greatly influenced by its students and their families than it is their teachers and programs.  I am not saying that a good or bad teacher won’t make a difference one way or another.  I am only saying that if you have a school populated with families that are education-focused, it will be a high-achieving school.

As an example, in our own school district, El Marino Language School has the highest measureable performance statistics of any of our schools.  As a parent of two students that currently attend El Marino, I can attest to the fact that our teachers are fantastic.  However, I do not believe that as a group they are any better than the teachers from any of our other schools.

What I believe to be the overriding factor in El Marino’s achievement statistics is that every single parent from that school CHOSE El Marino.  Because of this important factor, the likelihood of El Marino children having parents who focus on education at home is much higher than any other school in our district.  And because of this, El Marino’s API scores are higher than the rest of the schools in our district.

I point this out to parents who are considering a private or charter school over a Culver City school.  If you are a parent who is concerned over your child’s education, you are also a parent who will likely monitor your child’s progress, check in with their teachers and get to know their friends. You are a parent whose child will likely succeed and even thrive as much in our school district–in any of our schools—as you would elsewhere.

Why extricate your child from their neighborhood classmates?  Why hassle with a commute to go to school?  Going to a school outside our district means that your network of parents is now less conveniently available.  I know that we have leaned on our neighbors to pick up or drop off our kids from school many times–and vice versa.

And what about the cost of a private school education, if that’s your choice?  $20,000/year?  Really?  I mean, really?  I wish there was a cost/benefit analysis of that decision available.  My neighbors recently had their daughter graduate from Cal-Berkeley.  She also graduated from CCHS.  I wonder what their thoughts on spending their retirement money on a private school education would be?

My point is this:  Unless you know that your child absolutely cannot succeed in an environment where they will not receive one-on-one attention every day from their teacher, I do not understand why you would send your child outside CCUSD’s family of schools.   

And I will also say this:  Our schools need you!  If you care enough about your children’s education to look elsewhere, then you will care enough to be an active participant in your children’s school.  With every caring parent that we lose, it hurts our schools even more.  Our active parents and community members are the support network and safety net that help separate CCUSD from most school districts.

If you are even considering leaving our school district without trying it first, please reconsider.  If you’d like, you can contact me directly, and I will get you in front of any teacher or administrator so you can hear the real story of what is going on in our schools.