Some Laurel School Parents Are Nervous About Nick Melvoin’s Middle School Plans

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Laurel students earlier this year protesting a plan to convert their school into a middle school.

UPDATE: The Friday meeting referenced in this story has been postponed to Thursday, Nov. 7, at 8:30 a.m. at Laurel School.

A meeting planned for Friday morning at Laurel School may be contentious, with parents showing up to question Nick Melvoin’s plans for the location of the new West Hollywood-Fairfax Academy middle school. Melvoin represents the 4th District, which includes West Hollywood, on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

At issue is whether Melvoin will advocate that the WHFA middle school currently being considered for either the Fairfax High School campus or West Hollywood Community Day School at 1049 N. Fairfax Ave. should instead be integrated into the existing Laurel School. Laurel is a “span” school that serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is located on North Hayworth Avenue near Willoughby in West Hollywood. The administrators of Local District West, which includes West Hollywood, will be presenting to the Board of Education their recommendation and a plan for WHFA middle school.

Earlier this year, a group of parents of Laurel students protested a proposal to change Laurel into a middle school that would serve only students in sixth through eighth grades (children ages 11 to 14). Many of those parents stressed the importance to them of their children being able to remain at the same school from the time they enroll in kindergarten all the way through eighth grade. Those parents thought the middle school conversion was off the table with the announcement in June that Laurel would be designated as a magnet school with a focus on “cinematic arts and creative technologies. The only other dedicated public middle school option for students in the area is Bancroft Middle School on Las Palmas Avenue, just east of Highland Avenue and outside of West Hollywood’s city limits.

Nick Melvoin

Principal Brian Wisniewski assured parents of children enrolled in Laurel in the current 2019/2020 school year that they will be able to stay there in the 2020/2021 school year. After that, admission to Laurel, which currently serves more than 300 students, could become competitive. Magnet schools focus on particular subjects and are open to students outside the school’s traditional district. According to the Public School Review,  73% of Laurel’s students are from racial or ethnic minorities, where income levels typically are lower. That percentage is an indication that the majority of Laurel’s students come from families outside West Hollywood, which is predominately white. West Hollywood Elementary is the only public elementary school within the City of West Hollywood. It serves nearly 400 children in kindergarten through fifth grade at its campus on Hammond Street at Harratt. Public School Review reports that two-thirds of its students are white.

On Oct. 21, Melvoin outlined plans for the West Hollywood-Fairfax Academy (WHFA) at a public meeting and disclosed the Fairfax High and West Hollywood Community Day School location options. However, Steven Veninga, parent of a child at Laurel and an active opponent of the plan to convert it to a middle school, says rumors are coming from different places that Melvoin now wants to add WHFA to the Laurel campus and eliminate the pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade classes.

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Veninga says he’s heard that Melvoin has said that Laurel Principal Brian Wisniewski approached him saying he wanted Laurel to be a middle school campus and that only a handful of parents would oppose that. Veninga says that Wisniewski has denied that allegation.  Veninga expects that to be a subject of Friday’s meeting with Laurel parents.

Save Laurel, the parent group that has opposed transforming Laurel into a middle school, is asking that the meeting be postponed until it can gather more information about the issue. WEHOville has been unable to reach Wisniewski for a comment. Melvoin’s office referred WEHOville to Justin Brown, who is president of the board of Friends of West Hollywood Elementary School and a member of the middle school committee that has been considering proposals for a dedicated middle school.

Brown said he was unaware of any new proposal to convert Laurel to a middle school or build the school near Laurel. Brown lives with his wife and three sons in West Hollywood, with two of his sons currently attending West Hollywood Elementary. An advocate for a new middle school, Brown said that he and other parents see it as offering a greater concentration on the needs of students ages 11 to 14, which are very different from those of younger children in kindergarten and elementary school classes. Brown said the scarcity of vacant land would make building the WHFA middle school in West Hollywood difficult.

Laurel School

Veninga says he worries that even if the WHFA middle school is only located adjacent to Laurel, that will increase the chance that Laurel’s status as a “span” school will end. He said that he and other parents also are concerned that school district funding that otherwise would have gone to Laurel instead will be diverted to the middle school. Veninga, noting the likely difference in the economic and ethnic status of the students at Laurel and those at an adjacent middle school, described it as segregation.

Children attending the six nearby elementary schools — Cheremoya, Gardner, Melrose, Rosewood, Wonderland, and West Hollywood – will be first in line for admittance to WHFA, followed by those students who live within those schools’ service areas but don’t attend them.

West Hollywood is home to very few children. Less than 1% (0.8%) of West Hollywood’s 2016 population of 35,661 was aged five to nine according to the city’s 2019 Community Study, much lower than the Los Angeles County average of 6.9%. Many parents in West Hollywood enroll their children in charter or private schools. Melvoin has said that only 5% to 15% of West Hollywood middle-schoolers attend LAUSD schools.

West Hollywood City Councilmember Lindsey Horvath stepped forward during the debate about converting Laurel to a middle school to support the parents who wanted to preserve its pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade status. She told WEHOville that creating a new middle school to serve West Hollywood students “is something that should bring us together as a community, not divide us. I’ve asked board member Melvoin to make sure that all West Hollywood parents are getting the same, complete set of facts so they have a fair chance to weigh in on the options available for their children. We should not be pitting families against each other. It’s our young people who will lose in that fight.”

In April, West Hollywood Mayor John D’Amico and City Councilmember Lauren Meister brought before the City Council a proposal that city staffers meet with participants in the Children’s Roundtable to “explore the creation of a new middle-school pathway” as well as the possibility of a school serving students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The Roundtable is a group that meets monthly throughout the school year and includes school principals and educators and parents. 

Local District West will submit the middle school plan to the Board of Education on Nov. 15 so that it can be placed on the Board’s Dec. 3 agenda. The current plan is for WHFP to begin operating in the fall of 2020 with 125 sixth-grade students, five teachers, and an administrator. It will expand by 2022 to serve 360 students with two administrators and 16 teachers spanning sixth through eighth grades.

The meeting of the parents of Laurel students will take place at 8:30 a.m. at the school, which is at 925 N Hayworth Ave.

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Elena
Elena
4 years ago

My child is a 5th grader at Laurel and is looking forward to study cinematic art and creative technology at Laurel magnet program. My kid’s class maids fully share this excitement. I can’t even imagine why someone would try to take this great learning opportunity away from our children? We all love cinema and are lucky to live in the capital of Entertainment industry.

Adriana Rodriguez
Adriana Rodriguez
4 years ago

It is so important to my daughter and so many other families to have the opportunity to keep the k-8 going at Laurel. This school has been a saving grace for my family and hundreds of others.

Robyn Schwartz
Robyn Schwartz
4 years ago

Also, in future reporting on this issue I’d like to hear from parents seeking a new middle school about why they don’t see Laurel’s 6-8, particularly with its transition to a magnet, as an option for their children. Presumably they’ve visited the campus and toured as many parents tend to do before selecting any school for their children. Seventh and eighth grade were added to Laurel about 10 years ago to great fanfare by West Hollywood officials who were excited to offer a middle school option that included WeHo in its zoned boundaries (sixth grade is also part of the… Read more »

Steven
Steven
4 years ago
Reply to  Robyn Schwartz

Agreed! This is all Nick Melvoin and the obvious unethical practices of district 4.

Robyn Schwartz
Robyn Schwartz
4 years ago

While part of Laurel’s zoned boundary is within West Hollywood, the other (perhaps larger) portion of its zoned boundary, as well as the school itself, is located in Los Angeles. Thus any discussions about the school and its future should not be limited to voices in West Hollywood. When read quickly, the section of the article about the school’s demographics seems to imply that minority students are out of place in “West Hollywood.” In addition to the school’s LA boundaries adding to its diversity, it is also important to recognize that there are white parents/guardians (whether they live in WeHo… Read more »

George Reyes
George Reyes
4 years ago
Reply to  Robyn Schwartz

I think this all comes down to class. I am sure wealthy children of color would be just as welcome. Currently, Laurel is truly a diverse school. We have students of all ethnic backgrounds. The thing that most of them have in common is their income status. We are a Title 1 School. What I don’t understand is why local parents wouldn’t WANT to become involved in our local middle schools and give their time, energy and even resources to elevate their LOCAL school not only for their own children but for the good of the community. Other communities have… Read more »

George Reyes
George Reyes
4 years ago

My name is George Reyes and I am a teacher at Laurel. I was very closely involved in writing the Magnet proposal with the rest of the team, including Principal Brian Wisniewski. I am also supposed to be the magnet coordinator next year. In addition to all this, I am a homeowner in West Hollywood and live a few blocks from Laurel. I can say, without a doubt, and you can quote me on this on future articles, that NOBODY from the Laurel team wants to undo the Laurel Cinematic Arts and Creative Technologies K-8 Magnet that was approved by… Read more »

Steven
Steven
4 years ago
Reply to  George Reyes

I couldn’t agree more! Thanks for telling the truth, unlike Slick Nick Melvoin! #SaveLaurel

anonymous
anonymous
4 years ago
Reply to  Steven

Save Laurel from slick nick!!