The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

[Me: I am posting this story without comment for now because I will be attempting to get some interviews on this story]

This first article appeared in the LA Times on 5/4/07

The principal of one of Los Angeles’ most troubled high schools lashed out at the city school system Thursday, saying the behemoth organization is resistant to dramatic reforms needed at his campus and other low-performing schools.

“It is criminal to allow a school to continue on year after year, the way this one has,” said Frank Wells, head of Locke High School in South Los Angeles. “I went to Locke thinking I could turn it around, but I ran into a brick wall.”

Wells’ comments came in an impromptu, impassioned speech given at a charter school in Inglewood run by Green Dot Public Schools — one of the state’s leading operators of publicly funded, independently run charter schools.

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“Nothing is going to change in the lives of [Locke's] kids unless we do something revolutionary overnight,” Wells said.

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While going out of his way to emphasize that there are many effective teachers at Locke, Wells highlighted the district’s failure to put its best teachers in its worst schools, where they are needed most. More funding, he said, is not the solution.

“The more you fail, the more money they throw at you,” he said. “We’re filthy rich; I don’t want any more of your money. Send me quality teachers.” (more…)

Here is the latest article

(latimes.com) Challenging the balance of power in the city’s public school system, a leading charter school organization is poised to wrest control of a failing high school from the elected Los Angeles Board of Education.

Green Dot Public Schools, which has clashed frequently with the board in its aggressive push to expand, has quietly overseen the collection of signatures of support from a majority of the tenured teachers at Locke High School — clearing the major legal hurdle toward converting the campus into a series of charter schools.

Underscoring the anxiety and anger the plan is unleashing within the district, Locke Principal Frank Wells was escorted off campus and relieved of his duties late Tuesday afternoon pending the outcome of a district investigation into allegations that Wells allowed teachers to leave their classrooms to collect and sign petitions.

Wells called the charges “a total fabrication,” saying no classes were disrupted as teachers signed and collected signatures during non-class time. Teachers who helped collect signatures supported Wells’ version of events.

Under Green Dot’s proposal, which because of state law the Los Angeles school board would appear to have little choice but to approve, the 2,800-student Watts campus would be divided into 10 small Green Dot schools beginning in fall 2008. (more…)

According to our local news, the students had a walk-out today protesting against the removal of this principal.