UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Building Schools and Community Connections: Outreach and Activism for New Schools in Southeast L.A. Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/548439gt Author Kirschenbaum, Greta Marie Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Building Schools and Community Connections: Outreach and Activism for New Schools in Southeast L.A. by Greta Marie Kirschenbaum A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, Chair Professor Bruce Fuller Professor Emeritus Fred Collignon Deborah McKoy, Ph.D. Fall 2010 Copyright Page Table of Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract 1 Chapter 1 2 Introduction: LAUSD, Local District 6, and the Need for New and Better Schools Chapter 2 17 Framing Community Engagement: The Intersection of Participatory Planning and Community Organizing in the School Planning Context Chapter 3 35 Change on the Ground: The Physical and Relational Effects of Community Stakeholder Involvement Chapter 4 57 The Politics of School Development: Problematizing the Participatory Process Chapter 5 80 Sustained Community Engagement: Building a Foundation for Long-Term Parent and Community Involvement in Southeast Schools Chapter 6 100 Conclusion: Sustaining Community Engagement through District-Community Initiatives References 115 Appendices Appendix A: Methods i Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the family and friends who have loved, supported, and diverted me as I have travelled down this long and winding road… And especially for my love, Bradley, who has promised to continue the journey with me. ii Acknowledgments Many thanks to everyone at LAUSD, and to the residents and champions of the Southeast cities, who took time out of their busy schedules to help me explore these questions. A special thanks to Lorena Padilla and her staff, to Marisela Cervantes, and to all of the wonderful people of Southeast Los Angeles who inspired me with their passion for education and with their commitment to their communities. Also, to my cohort of exceptional SCS ladies: As scholars and as women, you are all amazing. Best of luck to you in all you do. No doubt, it will be great. And last, but not least, to my committee: To Ingrid, for keeping me focused and on track and for seeing me through to the end, To Bruce, for believing in this work and for keeping me intellectually honest, To Fred, for believing that planners can and should think about schools, and To Deb, for being a friend and an inspiration. iii Abstract Building Schools and Community Connections: Outreach and Activism for New Schools in Southeast L.A. by Greta Marie Kirschenbaum Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of California, Berkeley Professor Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, Chair This dissertation examines the district initiated community outreach and grassroots activism that occurred around the development of new schools in Southeast Los Angeles as part of Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) multi-billion dollar new school construction program. By examining the process by which local communities were involved in this significant public infrastructure program, I explore whether and how community involvement in new school planning informed the development of new school facilities and built a foundation for sustained parent and community engagement in schools. I look at Southeast Los Angeles, where chronically overcrowded campus conditions, and the concomitant need to return schools to two- semester calendars and students to neighborhood schools, necessitated construction of a number of the first new schools under LAUSD’s ongoing facilities development program. This qualitative study examines, in particular, LAUSD’s Local District 6, which encompasses six small Southeast cities, as a case study to critique the District’s outreach practices and to examine the importance of community involvement in schools in underserved immigrant communities. Data was collected from interviews, public meetings and events, school site visits, newspaper articles, websites, and published reports. This research is framed by two areas of literature, which together, characterize the primary realms within which civic engagement around new school development in Southeast Los Angeles has occurred: participatory planning and community organizing for school reform. In conversation with advocates of a “community approach” to school reform, I contend that parent and community engagement in schools is of the utmost importance in improving urban public schools, and that if building schools is to be integrated into the larger mission of optimizing educational opportunities for all students, school development should authentically capture and address local knowledge and concerns, and capitalize on stakeholder support for new schools to foster sustained engagement. In the context of LAUSD’s Local District 6, I argue that despite limitations in institutional and civic capacities, public engagement in the process of new school development has resulted in benefits to school and neighborhood communities, and has established a foundation for sustained parent and community involvement in schools. 1 Chapter One Introduction: LAUSD, Local District 6, and the Need for New and Better Schools I know our job is to build schools, but we sometimes think very narrowly about education. Kids live in a community; they live with their families…everything is connected. (LAUSD School Board Member) Ten years ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD/District) embarked on the largest public school construction program in U.S. history. Conceived as the major component in the District’s undertaking to relieve classroom overcrowding and return students to neighborhood schools operating on traditional calendars, the program is valued at more than $12.5 billion and set out to deliver approximately 167,000 new classroom seats by 2015 (LAUSD, November 2009). Throughout the course of program implementation, community participation has occurred both by District invitation and through grassroots grit. With an eye toward building sustained school-community connections, this research looks at LAUSD’s community outreach efforts in L.A.’s Southeast cities in order to explore in specific terms how and to what end urban public school districts might invite and engage public participation in the process of school facilities development. My research in the L.A. context was guided by the following primary questions: to what extent has LAUSD employed its Community Outreach program to inform the development of educational facilities and to foster long-term community1 engagement in new schools; and, in what ways have outreach process outcomes been constrained or enabled by institutional and community capacities? These questions emerged out of my sense as both an urban planner and a student of education that the siting and design of school facilities is most optimally undertaken within the context of pertinent community and educational issues. In other words, if building schools is to be integrated into the larger mission of optimizing educational opportunities for all students, school development should be undertaken in such a way that it captures and addresses local knowledge and concerns, and then capitalizes on stakeholder support for new schools by fostering sustained engagement in schools. This research agenda led me to spend many months traveling between Oakland and Southeast L.A. to visit schools, attend community meetings, and interview stakeholders and District staff in settings ranging from high-rise conference rooms to authentic Mexican restaurants. In this dissertation, I recount my observations in these settings and offer interpretations of the ways in which LAUSD has seized upon this moment of action and attention around building new schools in some of L.A.’s neediest neighborhoods - noting that the District’s engagement of its public at this time is of paramount importance for the future of both school and community improvement. In addition to examining LAUSD’s process for community engagement, I explore the grassroots response not only to new school construction, but also more 1 Herein, when I refer to “the community, I do so as a reflection of how the District considers it – primarily a neighborhood area that will be served by an incoming school. However, I, along with the District, by no means perceive such neighborhoods to be comprised of one unified “community” of residents. Rather, the community is a complex grouping of multiple perspectives, shaped by a combination of factors, such as one’s relationship to and expectations of the proposed school, racial/ethnic identity, language, socioeconomic status, and citizenship status. 2 generally to the need for school improvement in Southeast Los Angeles, where families have for decades endured some of the most overcrowded and decrepit schools in the nation. By contextualizing the people and cities of this vibrant region, lying just 20 minutes south of downtown Los Angeles, I employ this research to illuminate the importance of authentic community engagement in schools, which done well, can foster community ownership of schools that are “central to the life and learning of the entire community”(KnlowedgeWorks