What a difference a year makes. Last September, the LAUSD school board approved Green Dot's plan to transform Locke High School in Watts. This month, we are excited to announce that the Locke Transformation Project is in full swing! Six small schools opened September 8 on or near the Locke school campus. The new school year also marks the opening of Green Dot's first school outside of Los Angeles and our second annual Green Dot Ball. Read more about both in the newsletter. As always, Green Dot thanks everyone who supports us in our drive to make all public schools in L.A. small, safe and successful at graduating students prepared for college.
Come to the Second Annual Green Dot Ball
Be sure to join us for a special night under the stars at the second annual Green Dot Ball on Monday, Oct. 6 at the Griffith Observatory. There are only two weeks left to purchase your tickets, so make sure you get them today! This year's gala will honor education visionaries David Lizárraga, President and CEO of TELACU Millennium, and Founder and Chairman of the TELACU Education Foundation, and Monica Garcia, LAUSD School Board President. Mr. Lizárraga has worked tirelessly to provide disadvantaged families and young people access to the tools they need to pursue the American Dream, which includes providing college scholarships to East L.A. students. Monica Garcia is long-time educator and a strong proponent of educational reform in L.A.'s public schools. As only the third Latina to sit on the LAUSD school board , Ms. Garcia has given a voice to thousands of families and students who want better schools. Both Mr. Lizárraga and Ms. García are undeniable champions of public schools. Help us honor them October 6th at 6 p.m. at the Griffith Observatory. To purchase tickets go to www.greendotball.kintera.org, or to purchase sponsorship packages please call The New Philanthropy Group at (310) 899-9191.
Green Dot Opens Six New Schools in Watts The Alain LeRoy Locke Family of High Schools opened on September 8, marking the major start in Green Dot's Locke Transformation Project. Six new schools opened this month to serve the students from the Locke High area. These new schools will transform Locke from a single 2,600-student traditional high school into a cluster of high-performing, small, public Green Dot schools. In total, eight schools are part of the transformation project. Ánimo Watts II and Ánimo Locke Tech opened in 2007 and now serve ninth- and tenth-grade students. Locke was one of L.A.'s most troubled and chronically under-performing public high schools, having sent only 5% of its entering ninth graders to four-year colleges and universities. Green Dot hopes to create a ten-fold improvment in this outcome by 2012. The hope for a better academic future for the students was met with widespread community support before the first day of school as several hundred parents, students, teachers, church and community leaders, politicians, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined hands to bless the school upon its transformation. Green Dot is implementing several programs to make sure this happens, including using off-site facilities to incubate the new schools and creating an integrated alternative education program. "We want to make sure these kids have the support they need to improve their writing, math--all parts of their academic experience," said Kelly Hurley, Green Dot's cluster director for the new Locke schools. Each of the schools in the Locke family are autonomous and all of the teachers are members of the Asociación de Maestros Unidos, a CTA/NEA affiliate and the collective bargaining unit of Green Dot teachers. "What Green Dot is doing at Locke will be the model for any school district looking to turnaround underperforming schools. The Locke transformation will prove beyond any doubt that Green Dot's practices and those of other successful small school operators can be replicated by school districts on a large scale," said Ted Mitchell, President of New Schools Venture Fund and President of the California State Board of Education. With the opening of the new high schools Green Dot now operates 19 charter schools, including one in New York's South Bronx.
Green Dot-UFT Charter School Opens in New York The Green Dot New York Charter School opened Sept. 2nd with great enthusiasm among the 125 ninth graders, their parents, and education leaders in New York. The school is the first Green Dot charter to open outside of L.A. and marks a groundbreaking partnership between Green Dot and the NY-based United Federation of Teachers (UFT). "It is exciting to create a school from scratch where students and parents are making the choice to come and where we're developing a really strong culture together," said the school's principal Ashish Kapadia. "Everyone is united around the same mission and you rarely see that in a city public school." The school will follow Green Dot's model and its six tenets. The UFT will provide professional development, office, and technical support to the school. Students attended a Summer Bridge academic program to prepare them for the demands of high school. Kapadia and faculty, meanwhile, worked closely with Chad Soleo, principal of Ánimo Pat Brown, who worked with teachers and the principal of the New York school this summer.
Dell Foundation Invests $4 Million in Green Dot
The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has donated $4 million to support Green Dot and the Locke Transformation Project. The foundation's grant is among more than $5 million in grants that Green Dot recently received to support the transformation project and Green Dot's work to provide high-quality educational options for students in disadvantaged communities. The Walton Family Foundation has invested $920,000 and the Cortopassi Family Foundation has provided a $300,000 grant, both earmarked for the Locke Transformation Project. The grant from Dell will be split evenly to support the Locke transformation effort and Green Dot's Educational Instructional Leadership Program, which provides ongoing professional development, coaching and the use of research-based best practices for Green Dot's school leaders. These grants will greatly help Green Dot continue to challenge students academically and support them in meeting their academic goals. Thank you to the Michael and Susan Dell, Walton, and Cortopassi foundations for their support.
Green Dot Profile Kelly Hurley Creates New Culture at Schools If Kelly Hurley could describe himself in one word it would be "coach". It's coaching that led him to a career in education and whether as a teacher, principal, or now a support system for principals, it all comes back to coaching for Hurley. "The players are different, so to speak, but the methods are generally the same--you're inspiring people to be the very best they can be," says Hurley, 49, who was a rowing coach at Cal State Long Beach soon after graduating from the university.
From the Boathouse to the Classroom He soon segued into the classroom where he taught third then fifth grade and where he thought he'd stay forever. But stints as assistant principal and then principal of several Long Beach middle schools soon followed before Hurley was asked to take the helm of Long Beach Jordan High School. There he faced one of his toughest challenges--a huge school of 3,800 students and 150 teachers that suffered from low morale, dismal test scores, and poor attendance. Racial tension was at such a high that there was a student riot during Hurley's second month on the job. "There was a huge inequity of support for these students; it was heartbreaking and it needed to change," says Hurley. Hurley made a number of changes at the school to boost morale and provide better academic support for kids. But most importantly, he changed the culture on the campus to one of academic achievement and college attendance. Graduating students who successfully completed the A-G curriculum to qualify for admission to a UC/CSU college rose from 8% to 26% during Hurley's tenure. And API scores rose more than 100 points.
Embracing a Culture Change Hurley hopes to bring that same success to his work at Green Dot, which he joined in 2007 to help oversee the Locke Transformation Project. "What I fell in love with at Green Dot was this 360-degree type of accountability. The administrators, teachers, students, parents, everyone is held accountable and they are happy about it. This is something I am excited to be a part of," says Hurley. He has been working at the Locke site since December 2007 as cluster director. As part of his job Hurley coaches and provides support to principals of each of the transformation schools and also oversees major functions of the new schools. He says he is eager to change the culture surrounding this once troubled school and started by amassing a strong cadre of principals. "This cluster of schools has the best principals I've seen in my 11 years as an administrator," says Hurley. "They are destined to do great work with these students. I'm here to help them be the best leaders they can be."
Green Dot in the News
Green Dot Public Schools' work to transform Locke Senior High School in Watts recently caught the attention of Los Angeles Times' columnist Steve Lopez. Lopez visited the school to see what progress had been made since Green Dot took over Locke from L.A. Unified. In his column, Lopez said he plans to follow the progress that Green Dot and its supporters will make this coming school year. Click on the link above to read Lopez' column.
Read and watch other stories about the historic opening of the Locke Family of High Schools:
The hope for a better academic future for the students was met with widespread community support before the first day of school as several hundred parents, students, teachers, church and community leaders, politicians, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined hands to bless the school upon its transformation.
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asked to take the helm of Long Beach Jordan High School. There he faced one of his toughest challenges--a huge school of 3,800 students and 150 teachers that suffered from low morale, dismal test scores, and poor attendance. Racial tension was at such a high that there was a student riot during Hurley's second month on the job.