West Vernon Elementary parents and teachers continued their sustained fight against co-location by Gabriella Charter company with a sidewalk rally yesterday.  

With a deadline of April 1 for the district to make final offers to charter operators, the community sent a message: We deserve our own school. 

In 2023, West Vernon was approved to be a Community School. At the same time, they learned that Gabriella was offered space to co-locate a middle school on their campus, despite considerable community opposition. 

“We were excited to become a Community School because we knew we could begin offering services that would benefit parents and students — things like a community closet, a food pantry, maybe a washer/dryer, additional tutoring services, connections with local organizations,” West Vernon Chapter Chair Ron Sword said. “We’re a Title I school, and poverty, homelessness, and gangs are rampant in our community. So just to be able to give our students opportunities that other kids might take for granted would be amazing.”  

But instead, co-location meant that the school lost a computer lab, kindergarten rooms with age-appropriate bathrooms, a kindergarten playground, afterschool program space for tutoring, and private offices for counseling. The age gap between the elementary students and the charter middle school students became a growing concern, with the younger students exposed to behaviors by the older students that concerned parents. 

“There has been an uptick in vandalism and graffiti, and Gabriella is falling short on student supervision,” West Vernon teacher and Central Area Chair Stacie Webster says. “The West Vernon staff must supervise constantly to ensure our little ones are safe. Our school is successful and high achieving. I feel like we are being punished for that.” 

West Vernon parents and teachers have left no stone unturned in organizing against the co-location over the past few years. They’ve protested at Gabriella Charter Board meetings, circulated petitions, conducted phone call campaigns, sent regular emails and letters to district officials and board members, and held joint protests with other schools co-located by Gabriella. Last spring, they scored a partial victory when LAUSD agreed to return three rooms to West Vernon, but the co-location remains in place, pending any developments after the April 1 deadline. 

“We lost a lot through co-location,” Sword says. “And we will keep up the fight until we get it back.”