LAUSD: Schools Out for the Summer
By Gloria Angelina Castillo, EGP Staff Writer
With few exceptions, summer school throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will be cancelled this year due to the state’s budget deficit and declining revenues, it was announced May 28.
LAUSD estimates that close to 225,000 students at the elementary and middle school level will be impacted. Schools offering special education classes will be exempted.
Only classes required for graduation, students needing credits and A-G requisites will be available at high schools this summer.
Superintendent Ramon Cortines hopes the measure will save the LAUSD $34 million.
“This is a sad day for our students, our parents and families and our school district,” said Cortines. “In all of my years in education, I have never seen budget news as bad as the numbers currently faced by this school district.”
A.J. Duffy, president of the Unified Teachers of Los Angeles union said “It is indeed a sad day. This will be devastating to hundreds of thousands of students that need extended year and summer school services. There is a basic question that society needs to answer ‘Why are children always the first to be cut?’”
According to the district, even after cutting $567 million from the budget, it needed to cut $131 million more before the school year ends; the 2009-10 school year has $336 million in new cuts.
Sonia Corleto, mother of six-year-old Ashley Robles of Boyle Heights, said she had not heard about the cancellation and told EGP that summer school is a big help to working parents.
While she understands that schools are not childcare centers, Corleto said people who have no sympathy for working parents’ needs are ignorant.
“They’re crazy, they probably have grown children,” said Corleto, a single mother. “They have not been in the economic situation we are in.”
Corleto was able to enroll her daughter in a summer day care program available to low-income households, where she will be involved in a variety of activities including ballet and swimming, but said the cuts would hurt others not as fortunate.
“Kids will see things on the streets they shouldn’t,” said Corleto, adding that they may hang out with the wrong people. “First, their grades will drop, then they will do drugs—more than anything that’s the first thing they do.”
Carlen Oropeza, director of operations at the Boys & Girls Club of Los Angeles in Lincoln Heights, told EGP that parents need a secure place for their kids while they work, and often find the Boys & Girls Club is the most affordable option.
The club has increased its academic programs, but not all the instructors have teaching credentials, said Oropeza.
“We do the best we can but we are not summer school,” she said.
Last summer, the Club did not receive a grant it thought it had secured, but if they receive it this year, summer membership dues — about $25 per child — could be free.
While summer membership enrollment has started picking up, Oropeza is not sure if her Boys & Girls Club will be overwhelmed with children who would normally be in summer school.
“It’s hard to tell right now, it was just widely publicized this week,” Oropeza told EGP.
In a previous interview with EGP, Jaime Corral, a counselor for homeless children in LAUSD Districts 5 and 7, said that summer and other vacations are especially hard for homeless children who count on school breakfast and lunches.
Other local school districts have not cancelled their summer school programs, but responding to concerned parents who were told their child’s school had cancelled summer classes, Montebello Unified School District, MUSD, staff issued the following statement: “It has come to our attention that some of our parents have been receiving a computer generated phone message stating that summer school has been cancelled. … It is my speculation that some of our families who live in the LAUSD attendance areas were the recipients of the phone message. MUSD has not cancelled summer school.” MUSD serves Bell Gardens, Commerce, Montebello, and parts of Los Angeles, Monterey Park and Pico Rivera.
Some colleges have also adjusted their summer programs due to the cuts. The Los Angeles Community College District on May 27 announced that it would cancel two summer school sessions due to the deficit shortfall.
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June 4, 2009 Copyright © 2009 Eastern Group Publications, Inc.
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