Photos courtesy of Madeline Holler.
Facing a revocation of their charter at the upcoming August 20 Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) Board meeting, New City School supporters, faculty, parents, and students invaded Bixby Park over the weekend in an advertised “celebración” of their school and its philosophy.
The event—given a Spanish name to emphasize the school’s enormously successful dual-language immersion program, which succeeds at teaching ESL students more efficiently at a two-to-one rate compared to the District’s instituted language program—lived up to its title. The success of their language immersion program was put to full display, as children both watched and performed dance, music, art, and other forms of creativity.
The astounding support from throughout the community was clear, with various councilmembers and citizens of different districts coming out to voice their support.
2nd District Councilmember Suja Lowenthal said on stage that her relationship with Stephanie Lee, co-founder of New City and current director of its Education Program, has been a long one that she has deeply appreciated, thanking Lee for “instilling in this community that education is broader than textbooks.”
Daniel Brezenoff, legislative director for Garcia’s office, stated in an address to the crowd, “The way I feel about New City is it is the kind of school that, rather than being threatened with funding and being shut down, ought to be the kind of place where everyone around the country is going, ‘Hey, what are you doing? We want to learn from you.’ Almost every school in the country has its struggles. But places like New City, what you folks are doing, is creating lifetime learners.”
In a joint, bipartisan letter from Vice Mayor Robert Garcia and 3rd District Councilmember Gary DeLong, they stated not only their support in hoping the Board will extend the school’s charter but emphasized that “New City has done an outstanding job of educating its students, even with limited resources and a challenging environment… For a city as diverse as Long Beach, New City’s services are invaluable.”
Having existed in the city for twelve years now, the familial sense between everyone there was difficult to deny—and it was this point that for Sabrina Bow, the school’s executive director, was the true success of New City. Going far beyond powerful support from Long Beach’s political elite, it was the school’s ability to engage parents in the educational lives of their children that was most impressive. “Our school is deeply and personally relevant to the community,” she said, “as reflected by the abundance of families that came out to show their support for public school choice in Long Beach.
The parents could not have agreed more.
This sense of being adamant about their choices should not necessarily be met with dismay but rather as a personally political choice, as Tova Pusl, whose two children attend New City, put it, “What we parents want folks in Long Beach to know, what we want the Long Beach Board members to know, is that we are simply asking for a real choice in where we send our kids to school.”
Madeline Holler, a member of the school’s board of directors and an avid parent supporter (you might recall her being removed from the last LBUSD Board meeting for speaking out against the policies of Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser), was just as direct: “Bottom line, parents love New City School. Kids love New City School. The Long Beach Blvd. and Pine Avenue neighborhoods love New City School. And, as we saw here today and have seen with letters of endorsement from so many, Long Beach leaders value New City School.”
The decision to revoke or renew New City’s charter will be decided at the upcoming August 20 LBUSD Board meeting.
Click here to view our policies covering Long Beach city council.
{vsig}addison/NewCityCele{/vsig}
{FG_GEOMAP [33.7818573,-118.19224919999999] FG_GEOMAP}