California Connected takes you back to Mount Vernon Middle School in Los Angeles. It’s one of 13 schools currently being monitored by California’s Department of Education because student test scores failed to meet goals over the past four years. The Los Angeles Unified School District has a year left to implement dramatic changes at the school or face sanctions.
Mount Vernon is closing its doors this summer—the first time in more than 20 years. That’s how long it has been a year-round school, but, starting September 3rd, the school will be on a traditional calendar. This means there will be a lot of students on campus at one time—and officials are trying to keep that number at about 1,700.
The school will be getting some extra resources and funding from a school district program called “The Ten Schools Program.” But that same program has driven out a number of veteran teachers who refused to sign the program’s commitment form to stay at Mount Vernon.
Teachers objected to the suggestion that they were not already committed, as well as a dress code that bans jeans and requires that men wear ties or white polo shirts and women wear hosiery.
Tune in to find out the latest as school wraps up and some teachers pack up their classrooms for the last time.