Education Week - March 18, 2015 - 21

day. The school's principal and security officer ran
to the man's aid while ordering a school lockdown.
"It was very hostile at the school," Silvestre
Maravilla, Lexington's principal said.
Mr. Maravilla, who had been the principal of a
Pomona middle school, was hired to take over Lexington
in December 2013. Back then, he recalled,
"Teachers would sit in their cars in the parking lot
waiting for the first bell to ring in the morning. ...
People didn't want to be here."
Initially, district officials weren't keen on Parent
Revolution's presence in Pomona either, and tried
to "blow us off," said Jesus Sanchez, who was then
Parent Revolution's lead organizer in Pomona. But
Mr. Sanchez, who is now the chief strategy officer
for the private consulting firm Excellent Educational
Solutions, said eventually district and school
leaders were "brave enough to have honest conversations"
with parents.
Once negotiations began in earnest in December
2013, the principal and superintendent attended
every meeting with parent union members. For
the next 17 hours of meetings, they listened and
took copious notes as parents-who had carefully
crafted their arguments with Mr. Sanchez's
assistance-detailed their concerns. Then Mr.
Maravilla drafted a strategy to tackle Lexington's
challenges.
A Phoenix Rises
A native of East Los Angeles, a predominantly
low-income and Hispanic neighborhood, Mr. Maravilla
said he relates to Lexington's parents, which
made it easier to find common ground.
"[The parents] were really disenfranchised," he
said. "They had every right to be upset."
One of Lexington's challenges also involved
dismantling an unsanctioned parent-teacher organization
to chapter on campus, which parents
and teachers say heightened tension at the school.
Mr. Maravilla said the school hopes to start a pta
chapter in its place.
Veteran 6th grade teacher Michael Mitchell
admits some staff members initially were concerned
about individual teachers and parents
being singled out and criticized. But he said once
it was clear that most people involved in the discussions
were genuinely trying to serve students,
the school community relaxed.
"The [parents] were like the phoenix that rose
out of the ashes," he said.
Lexington always had some good teachers, but
a few "didn't do or couldn't do all they could do
to help students," parent Liliana Martinez said
in Spanish, through a translator. The mother of
two Lexington students said she talked with her
daughter's teacher about getting her better prepared
for high school last school year, but there
was no support outside the classroom.
For his part, Mr. Maravilla evaluated every
Lexington teacher and had the superintendent's
support to remove two teachers from their positions.
Other teachers received additional support
or changed grade levels, which he said has
boosted their confidence.
To encourage team-building, Mr. Maravilla
said the office is always stocked with coffee and
snacks, and on Fridays, Lexington teachers are
encouraged to wear their school T-shirts.
"[Mr. Maravilla] has created an environment
where teachers and parents are working together,"
Ms. Garcia said.
During a recent potluck meal with parents for
an English-learner advisory committee meeting,
Mr. Maravilla recalls joking with parents: "Remember
how much you used to hate me?"
"We can laugh about it now," he said, smiling
broadly. Then he added: "In the end, we all
wanted what was best for the kids."
Coverage of parent-empowerment issues is supported
by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, at
www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org. Education Week
retains sole editorial control over the content of this
coverage.
says have been trapped "by their zip
codes" in bad schools for years.
"I see nothing wrong with saying,
'Power to the parents,' " said Ms.
Romero, who grew up in East Los
Angeles. "This is not the districtempowerment
law."
The former Democratic state lawmaker
founded the California Center
for Parent Empowerment last year.
The Los Angeles-based nonprofit,
which is supported by the Walton
Family Foundation and the Broad
Foundation, is focusing its efforts on
educating parents about the parenttrigger
law and the state's Open Enrollment
Act, which also became law
in 2010. (The Walton and Broad foundations
have provided financial support
to Parent Revolution, and both
foundations support work in Education
Week.)
The Open Enrollment Act allows
students to enroll in a higher-performing
school that has capacity,
if their current school is identified
by the state education department
as one of the 1,000 "low-achieving"
schools in California.
After the open-enrollment-eligible
school list was released in November,
Ms. Romero sent organizers to a few
Los Angeles-area schools to inform
parents about their rights. Parents
only had until Jan. 1 to apply for
school transfers under the law.
These laws have caused so much
anxiety that Ms. Romero said the
police were called to one school in
Montebello, Calif., where the center's
organizers were handing out informational
flyers after school. She says
police also were called to a school
district office in Anaheim, as another
center organizer waited for information
regarding Palm Lane's rejected
parent petitions. Parents there are
currently working to resolve the issues
with the petition.
"It's crazy," Ms. Romero said about
the incidents. "But we should not
be surprised. When you put a new
seat at the table, you have to rearrange
how power gets divided. This
is a whole new chapter in the education
reform movement, and it scares
people."
Disagreement Among Advocates
Although Ms. Romero initially
worked closely with Parent Revolution,
she is highly critical of that organization
today, alleging that it has
focused mostly on promoting itself.
She also notes that much of Parent
Revolution's staff has left the organization.
Mr.
Austin, Parent Revolution's
founder, discounted Ms. Romero's
claims that the group lost sight of
the law's purpose.
"This is simply about giving parents,
in particular low-income parents,
parents of color, and undocumented
parents, real power over the
destiny of their own children," said
Mr. Austin, who calls himself the inventor
of the parent-trigger law.
In January, Mr. Austin became the
policy development and advocacy director
for Students Matter, a Menlo
Park, Calif.-based national education
nonprofit that sponsored the
Vergara v. California lawsuit, which
struck down state laws on teacher
tenure and dismissal. Mr. Austin
said his exit and staff turnover at
Parent Revolution are due to the
taxing nature of working on parenttrigger
campaigns.
Mr. Austin said that Parent Revolution
made mistakes in its first
failed petition drive in Compton,
Calif., in 2010, by assuming too
much decisionmaking responsibility.
But he said the efforts that followed
focused on organizing and
training parent-union members to
lead successful campaigns. Parent
Revolution also hosted a Parent
Power Convention in November and
created a network of parent unions
to broaden and strengthen parentempowerment
efforts.
One of Parent Revolution's mostactive
parent unions, at West Athens
Elementary School in Los Angeles,
enlisted Parent Revolution's help
last year and secured a $300,000
deal with the Los Angeles Unified
School District to address chronic
school safety and bullying issues.
But during a recent West Athens
Parent Union meeting in a home
directly next to the school's campus,
most parents said they aren't satisfied
even though lausd added an assistant
principal, a part-time social
worker/psychologist, and a school
safety officer.
Their chief complaint continues
to be student bullying and school
safety. A Parent Revolution organizer
served as an interpreter as
parents explained in Spanish how
students have left campus at dismissal
without being released to
the appropriate parent or guardian.
Parents said one situation prompted
a police helicopter search of the area
for a student.
While one parent suggested that a
charter conversion might give West
Athens a fresh start, most of the
eight parents attending the meeting
said they support the school's teachers
and wouldn't want them to leave
under a charter scenario.
"I think the solution to all the
school's problems is the principal,"
parent Jessica Alday said in Spanish,
as other parents nodded in
agreement.
The parent union members' dissatisfaction
came as a surprise to
Ruth Castillo, West Athens' principal
and Rosalinda Lugo, an lausd
instructional director, who managed
negotiations with the parent union
last year.
Ms. Castillo said West Athens
would undergo an annual instructional
and operational review with all
the school's stakeholders in May. She
added that although the school hosts
anti-bullying student assemblies
every six weeks, controlling student
behavior remains a challenge.
"It's a work in progress," Ms. Castillo
said. "With behavior there are
peaks and there are valleys."
Meanwhile, Ms. Lugo, who plans
to meet with the parent union this
month, said the district would reevaluate
West Athens' budget to
determine how to best address parents'
concerns for the 2015-16 school
year.
Using the parent-trigger law to
transform schools is fraught with
multifaceted challenges, noted Lydia
Grant, a longtime Parent Revolution
board member and a parent advocate
from Sunland-Tujunga, Calif.
Ms. Grant said parents, like those
at West Athens, who lead trigger
campaigns have to be willing to
stand up to school district officials
and potentially become targets
for retaliation and media scrutiny.
That's why parents, not Parent Revolution,
must set the pace of school
overhauls, she said.
"We, as an organization, can't force
parents to do this," Ms. Grant said.
"We can offer them the opportunity,
but it's up to them to ask for it."
Coverage of parent-empowerment
issues is supported by a grant from the
Walton Family Foundation, at www.
waltonfamilyfoundation.org. Education
Week retains sole editorial control over
the content of this coverage.
EDUCATION WEEK | March 18, 2015 | www.edweek.org | 21
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Education Week - March 18, 2015

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