Results of Community Vote on Echo Park's New School Expected Wednesday

Echo Park residents could learn by Wednesday who won January's  nonbinding vote on the future of the area's newest elementary and middle school. The League of Women Voters of Los Angeles is preparing the report, which will be posted at the Public Schools Choice website. Parents, teachers and community members voted last month at Union and Rosemont schools.

An election observer report from Families in Schools is also set to also go up at the Schools Choice site Wednesday. Both documents could influence the Los Angeles Unified School District Board vote on the school expected March 15th.

Under school reform guidelines, Schools Chancellor Ramon Cortines must also review the reports before his preferences go to the board. Cortines will also get input from an eleven-member review committee, made up of parents, educators, and community and union members.

A community briefing on the election reports is scheduled for Thursday, February 24th from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m at LAUSD headquarters at 333 S. Beaudry Avenue near downtown. Raquel Beltran  of the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles and Parker Hudnut of LAUSD's Innovation and Charter Schools division are set to attend.

Community Region Elementary School 14 has long been a hot-button issue in Echo Park.  The LAUSD requested proposals from groups that wanted to run the 875-seat campus under its Public Schools Choice 2.0 program. Activists pushed for the school in order to ease overcrowding at nearby Union, Rosemont and Logan elementary schools. It is located in the center of Echo Park at 1018 Mohawk St.

The district created Public Schools Choice to call for new, innovative approaches to running new and reformed schools within the system.

A group of local teachers, parents and administrators calling themselves LD4 & Echo Park Community Partners have submitted one of two current proposals for CRES 14. Their plan calls for an elected governing board, project-based learning, local parent involvement and and several bilingual learning options. Supporters of the plan held an informational meeting Saturday at Cathedral Congregation of St. Paul's.

Experienced and celebrated  Camino Nuevo Charter Academy has also submitted a plan for the school. Camino Nuevo runs five charter schools in LAUSD jurisdiction with high graduation rates. Instruction occurs in English and Spanish. Teachers are not LAUSD employees.

Click to see both proposals.