Oscar de la Hoya Animo Green Dot Charter School, Welcome Home!

During my time as School Board President for LAUSD, Steve Barr of Green Dot Charter Schools approached me about building a charter high school in my district. I suggested Boyle Heights since the two local schools, Garfield and Roosevelt, were severely overcrowded and they needed relief. Along with pushing to get the Mendez Learning Center built, I knew this would be an opportunity to improve the educational future of our local students. Yesterday, I had the great pleasure to celebrate the opening of the Oscar de la Hoya Animo Green Dot Charter School. Green Dot has shown great commitment to the community of Boyle Heights . And Oscar de la Hoya, who grew up in East Los Angeles and proudly attended Garfield High School , demonstrated yet again that he is absolutely committed to giving back to his community. By donating the property that once held the Oscar De La Hoya Resurrection Gym, as well as giving $4.5 million to the project, Oscar De La Hoya has proven to be a champion in and out of the boxing ring. Before finding a permanent home in Boyle Heights , students and faculty of the charter school have had several temporary homes since the school’s opening in 2003. Despite less than ideal conditions, over the last three years, 72% of graduates have gone on to 4-year universities and the school is ranked 53 among the top 100 charter schools in the nation. With a new home, we all expect bigger and better things out of the students of Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter School. Go Boxers!
Photo Credit: Golden Boy Productions

Boyle Heights Rec Center Soccer Fields in Full Use!

Also on Saturday, boys and girls’ soccer teams from El Sereno and Boyle Heights squared off for the unofficial 1st Annual soccer match at the new $2.2 million renovated Boyle Heights Sports Center. The Center is now the site of the first City-built synthetic soccer field on the Eastside. After construction on the project began, state funding was frozen due to the poor economy and I worked with the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Bureau of Engineering to find City loans to complete the project. From the $50 million Valley Boulevard Bridge, to the Metro Gold Line, to the Mendez Learning Center and the new Hollenbeck Police Station, to the Sports Center (just to name a few!), L.A.’s Eastside is enjoying a time of unprecedented public project improvements. I’m happy to have done my part to turn these dreams into reality. Congrats to all the boys and girls (and their families) for coming out to our fair yesterday and thanks to all our organizations, including representative from the 2010 Census for coming out and helping.

Oxy's New President, Jonathan Veitch, Welcome!

I attended a breakfast yesterday morning for Jonathan Veitch before his inauguration as new Occidental College President. I first met Jonathan a few months ago and I knew then that he was a committed and dedicated leader. Located in Eagle Rock, Occidental has a reputation as an excellent liberal arts university (President Barack Obama was a student) and I know that Jonathan will be tremendous asset to the college, its faculty and, most importantly, to the students. Congratulations, Mr. Veitch!

Photo Credit: 1)President Veitch, courtesy Occidental Facebook Page
2) Council Staff

El Sereno Stallions Homecoming, 15 Years and Still Going Strong

On Sunday I was invited to the El Sereno Stallions Homecoming at Wilson High School. What a great event! The Stallions are celebrating 15 years in the El Sereno community under the direction of Jorge Hernandez. The commitment that the parents, coaches, football players and cheerleaders demonstrate is really inspiring. When I was a young boy, sports were always a part of my life. I wanted to be a baseball player and I was glad to see that Louie Moreno, who was my high school baseball coach, was the MC at the Stallions Homecoming. A big congratulations and thank you is in order to the Stallions head coaches, Joel Cuevas, Lionel Gonzalez, Robin Joseph Sr., Mario Zepeda, Bert Pere, Andy Carrillo and Art Garcia, as well as the many parents and family members who volunteer their time to teach these kids the importance of team spirit and sportsmanship. Playing sports and being involved allows students to be positive role models and teaches the value of hard work, commitment and friendship. Congratulation again to the players and the 2009 court! Great job!

LA’s Best & Sunrise Elementary Receive $10k

On Friday, I spent the afternoon with the kids at Sunrise Elementary School and the team of LA’s Best. Thanks to LA’s Best education and community partner, Target, LA’s BEST received a $10,000 grant which has allowed them to makeover libraries and install computers at 6 of their sites, including Sunrise Elementary in Boyle Heights. LA’s Best was also able to provide literacy kits and books to students at 29 other sites. To put it in perspective 4,000 students will directly benefit from this grant. At Sunrise, the library has been transformed with new furniture, new computers and even new artwork. It’s great to see that Sunrise continues to grow and provide such great resources for the kids.

The Students at L.A. Central Learning Center #1 will Know Legacy of Robert Kennedy

Pictured: With the mothers that organized when I was on the school board to make sure a new school was built in the community.

This weekend I attended the Ribbon Cutting for two fine new schools built on the Ambassador Hotel site, one of the campuses I fought to get done while serving on the LAUSD school board. The campus is significant to me for two reasons. One, it was ground-zero in our mission to end overcrowding at schools that resulted in year-round calendars and bussing children out of their neighborhoods – both severe detriments to a quality education. And two, the Ambassador is the site of one of the saddest moments in our nation’s history: the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy, who at the time of his untimely death represented a new-found hope for change in this country. When complete, the Learning Center will have three separate school buildings for elementary, middle school, and high school students and all the schools will have a social justice philosophy to honor the legacy of Robert Kennedy. I think the final piece of the puzzle now is naming the school in Robert Kennedy’s honor, which I whole-heartedly support.
Enjoy these pictures of the event!

Pancakes at Mt. Washington Elementary

This past weekend, my family and I enjoyed a really great pancake breakfast fundraiser that the Mt. Washington elementary school PTA hosted. The school had a really great turn out and raised a good amount of money for school. Congratulations!

Come Out to the Mendez Learning Center's Ribbon-Cutting Tomorrow!

Please join me tomorrow morning at the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center, the first high school built in the eastside in more than 80 years. During my time as president of the school board I fought to get a much-need high school built in Boyle Heights to relieve overcrowding at Roosevelt High School, which at one time was the most overcrowded school west of the Mississippi. I also wanted a school with a math-science focus to prepare kids for high-paying tech jobs that are going to be available in the future. The Mendez Learning Center, which is named after a Mexican American couple who fought school segregation in the 1940s, will have a math-science school and an engineering-technology school. This is an accomplishment the whole community can feel proud about, so please join me, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAUSD School Board President Monica Garcia and hundreds of students and community members for this great celebration.

When: 9 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009

Where: Mendez Learning Center
1200 Plaza de Sol
Los Angeles, CA 90033

Info: Councilmember Huizar’s
Boyle Heights Office
(323) 526-3059

Mendez Learning Center: Old Dreams Inspire New Ones

Last weekend, I was joined by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAUSD School Board President Monica Garcia, HENAAC and school administrators at a celebration for the Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center, a brand new high school in Boyle Heights. It was a profound experience to gather with parents, youth and Sylvia Mendez (pictured above), who in 1946 was only a little girl when her parents, Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez, filed a lawsuit to end the segregation of Mexican children in schools in Santa Ana. The Mendez v. Westminster case paved the wave for Brown v. Board of Education. The Mendez Learning Center is named after these trailblazers and is the first high school to be built in Boyle Heights in decades. During my time on the school board, I set my sites on building a new high school in the Eastside to relieve overcrowding at Roosevelt High School, which at the time was one of the most overcrowded schools in the Western United States. The new campus will receive students from Roosevelt, which will allow both schools to be on a traditional school-year calendar instead of what I consider a vastly inferior year-round schedule. As Board President, I oversaw the building of several new schools and took a stand to not approve any new school in the district until we had a commitment to build a new high school in Boyle Heights. Beyond getting the school built, I wanted a campus dedicated to math and science, to allow kids on the Eastside the opportunity to pursue careers in the undermanned high-tech fields that pay the kind of salaries that can really transform lives. Thankfully, the Mendez Learning Center is styled as a college campus and houses two schools, one in math and science and the other in technology and engineering. With the access to many high tech firms and city agencies right across the First Street bridge, it is my hope that kids attending Mendez will have hands-on internship opportunities throughout the school year to inspire them and to learn that all their dreams are truly possible.

STEM-UP will Allow Kids to Rise Up to a Brighter Future

Yesterday I attended a landmark event at Hollenbeck Middle School to promote the launching of STEM-UP – an effort to get more students involved in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields. HENAAC is working with the Department of Defense and the United States Army Corps of Engineers in launching this groundbreaking program in Boyle Heights. I joined HENAAC CEO Ray Mellado, Congressmember Lucille Roybal-Allard, LAUSD President Monica Garcia, Cal State L.A. College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology Dean Keith Moo-Young and others for what truly will be a pivotal moment in the education of children on the Eastside. HENAAC estimates that by 2025, the country will need more than 11 million workers in STEM fields, and Latinos are well below other groups when it comes to pursuing these high-paying careers. With the new Mendez Learning Center in Boyle Heights focusing on Math-Science and Engineering-Technology and the STEM-UP campaign going full force, we will truly be making dreams come true for countless children and their families.
You can read all about it HERE.