Schools
Luther Burbank Principal to Address Community Tonight
Arturo Valdez, principal of Luther Burbank Middle School, has promised to oversee academic improvements at the school.
Principal Arturo Valdez is scheduled to address members of the community on Thursday evening during the regular meeting of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 5, from 7 until 9 p.m. at the .
The HHPNC was prompted to invite Valdez to the speak after several of their previous meetings were dominated by stakeholder conversation about the school.
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After year's of failing to meet state mandated academic achievement standards in math and science, Luther Burbank will next year undertake the process of LAUSD directed , through which every teacher in the school has been released and required to reapply for their jobs.
In a brief conversation with Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch following a community meeting at Luther Burbank last week, Valdez promised that reconstitution would turn the tide at the school.
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"I'm going to bring in a varsity team of the best teachers in the district," Valdez said.
Further, Garvanza residents have complained that the school police, which patrols Luther Burbank, has done an inadequate job in preventing unruly students from causing trouble in their neighborhood.
Jose Carmona, a youth advocate for the Northeast Church of Los Angeles, is one community member who feels he could play a role in stemming the violence at Luther Burbank.
Carmona, an LAUSD teacher with 45 years of experience, ran the Peace Warriors program at the school during the 2008/2009 school year, which claimed was directly responsible for reducing the number of suspensions in the school that year from 650 to 120.
However, Carmona said he was barred from the school by previous principal John Samaniego, who Carmona said accused him of catering to unruly students.
Carmona would organize weekly meetings for the Peace Warrior students, which included free pizza and soda.
"It was too outside the box for them," Carmona said. "They thought we were enabling students."
Samaniego, who is now a team leader for LAUSD local district 4, could not be reached for comment.
In January, Carmona wrote to Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar, asking that he be allowed to again run his Peace Warriors program at Luther Burbank.
"I am asking you to organize a committee that will have the intent of asking LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines to put me under his direct authority to have me put a Peace Warrior Program at Luther Burbank, Irving and Schools," the letter reads. "The Peace Warriors program is simply to find the student school leaders and organize them to help stop gang violence at their respective schools."
Carmona, with his years of experience as a teacher and youth advocate, said he is especially suited to implement the program.
"You have to be in the schools every day, establishing relationships with students," he said. "If you're not doing that, you're not going anywhere."
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