KPCC News In Brief

Locke High School in Watts reopens as Green Dot charter school

Locke High School in Watts opened for classes today. But for the first time in 41 years, Los Angeles Unified School District administrators are not running the place. Low test scores and student brawls afflicted the campus last year. Most of Locke’s teachers voted to secede from the district. They chose the Green Dot charter schools company to take over.

Green Dot founder Steve Barr says Locke needed tender loving care, and then some.

Steve Barr: “All the adults are on one mission that we think every kid can learn. Every kid is in a uniform. We have high expectations for every kid. And every dollar that the taxpayers have put forth have gone to the school site. So that enables us to have class size at 25-to-1, and it enables us to put resources where they belong, at the school site.”

Barr says it’s going to cost $20 million a year to run Locke. Most of that money will come from the state, and Green Dot fund raising will help supply the rest. Green Dot didn’t fire teachers, but it did require every one of them to re-apply. About one-third of last year’s teachers returned. Green Dot pays a little more, but the benefits aren’t as generous as they were under L.A. Unified’s teachers’ union.

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• September 8, 2008 5:40 PM
• Categories: Education