This article originally appeared in the January-February 2003 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Grassroots Snapshot

School districts turning to community organizing for answers

By Leslie Albrecht

On July 1, 2000, Bernadino arrived at Trinity Elementary in Los Angeles, hair combed, shirt tucked in, ready for second grade. But at Trinity, with 1,800 kids in a building designed for 600, students take turns going to school year-round in three "tracks." Bernadino wasn't in B Track, which starts July 1, so he was sent home.

When Bernadino showed up for the third day in a row, school staff walked him home. Bernadino's parents were at work, and his two toddler brothers had been left with an uncle, who was asleep upstairs. But funds for child care for "off-track" kids wouldn't be available until October. So Bernadino stayed home.

Parents had been complaining for years about this delay in B Track funds-not only for "off-track" child care, but also for tutoring kids who needed extra help.

When Principal Robert Cordova came to Trinity in 2000, he says, "There was a group of parents who thought to make change you had to yell at the principal and the superintendent." In that energy, he saw potential.

L.A. Metro: "Relational meetings." So Cordova called community organizers at L.A. Metro Strategy Industrial Areas Foundation, a veteran community organizing movement that's working, in an unusual alliance with the school district, to build "core groups" of leaders at 25 Los Angeles schools. They start with "relational meetings," where parents and teachers get to know each other by discovering shared values and goals.

Cordova began by holding one-on-one conversations with parents and teachers. "We thought he was nuts at first because no one had ever talked to us about 'relational culture' before," says 30-year veteran teacher Donna Palmer. But gradually Cordova found a group of interested parents and teachers and worked with them to organize the community-an unusual role for a principal! Soon they held a neighborhood cleanup and a successful campaign for school crossing guards.

City-wide meetings. In July 2001, LA Metro Strategy brought 800 community leaders from Trinity and other schools to an "educational summit." The strong turnout convinced LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer to set up regular meetings with L.A. Metro school leaders.

When Cordova told Bernadino's story in one of these meetings, it "was a launching pad for [our] relationship with Romer," says L.A. Metro organizer Sister Maribeth Larkin.

District as ally. The "old way" of approaching school officials, says Cordova, was: "It's your fault, we're gonna hurt you." In contrast, says organizer Celeste Lofton, "We came to Romer saying, 'We're trying to figure out what's best for our children and we think you're a good ally.'"

Then in May 2002, at a public meeting with 500 people, Cordova asked Romer to make tutoring and child care funds available during B Track. Romer said yes.

Changes at school. "Before, kids would be at home for two months during the summer watching TV. Now we have raised their education to a better level," says Elvira Garcia, parent of two former Trinity students.

And the organizing changed the school. "I see a growth of teacher involvement with parents-and parents are taking charge of events otherwise hosted by the school," says third grade teacher Claudia Ramirez.

Maria Zamora, parent of two Trinity students, agrees. "We don't have any problem talking to teachers or Cordova at any time."

• L.A. Metro Strategies, 213-273-8420

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