Mitch O’Farrell Leads Call For Transition at Van de Kamps

Offers City Assistance to Help Alliance Charter School Relocate

Within his first month in office, the City Councilmember in whose district the Van de Kamps campus lies has sent a letter to Los Angeles Community College District Board Members calling upon them to work with him and the community to plan a transition of the campus to its intended community college purposes. If an effort starts now, the current charter school lease of Van de Kamps will end without renewal and community college programming could start Fall 2014.

Now is the time for Northeast Community leaders to send emails, faxes and calls to the LACCD Board telling them that the community supports Councilmember O’Farrell in his effort to get Van de Kamps operating consistent with the $91 million spent by LACCD in community college tax funds in building the site.

As he said in his letter to the Board of Trustees, O’Farrell has personal knowledge that the original Van de Kamps plan for opening WITHOUT RELYING UPON STATE EDUCATION FUNDING was long ago determined economically feasible. Here is exactly what O’Farrell’s letter said:

Dear Mr. Veres and Board Members:

As the District 13 representative on the Los Angeles City Council, I urge you and your fellow board members to look at the original operational plan for the Van de Kamps Campus regarding its future use. The original operational plan and its associated economic feasibility study from over ten years ago concluded that LACCD staff was uniquely positioned and well-qualified to successfully market and provide a variety of adult educational opportunities to residents of Northeast Los Angeles – a great portion of which lies within my Council District.

My history on this issue goes back to 2001, first as a community member, and later as a Field Deputy for then Councilmember Eric Garcetti. While working on behalf of my predecessor, I began convening a working group made up of community leaders, the Save the Van de Kamps coalition, and decision makers at LACC, including then president Steve Maradian and his staff. Our focus was to help get the construction project back on track in anticipation of opening of Van de Kamps as a satellite campus for LACC in Hollywood. I participated in many years of meetings to help with the construction plans, the educational program, and funding feasibility issues. We did this hand-in-hand with a coalition of community members who provided valuable input into this planning process.

Since that time, Van de Kamps has been uncoupled from LACC as a satellite campus and is now a direct part of the LACCD system. I offer the assistance, support, and direct involvement of my office to help plan a transition of Van de Kamps from its temporary leasing activity back to an innovative mix of community service courses, workforce training, and academic core courses. K-12 bond funds exist and are available to the Alliance Charter School and again, my office will do whatever it can to assist in any transition to a permanent location.

I urge the Board of Trustees to work with the community in the planning and execution to open the Van de Kamps site to fulfill its original intent, as a center for higher education in Northeast Los Angeles where it is badly needed, as soon as feasible. I know we can do this together and I am here to support you in this effort.

Most sincerely,

MITCH O’FARRELL

Councilmember of the Thirteenth District

If you are a local Neighborhood Council or community group leader, can you put a resolution on your next meeting agenda calling upon the LACCD Board to order its staff to collaborate with Councilmember O’Farrell? When you see elected officials such as Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Jose Huizar, Assemblymember Jimmy Gomez, or State Senator Kevin DeLeon, can you insist that they add letters of support to Councilmember O’Farrell’s call to heal this wound?

Every voice raised to the LACCD Board increases the ability of the community to remind the Board that next election you will see them at the polls and remember whether they joined the leadership vision of O’Farrell, or continue to pursue a dirty backroom deal to try to hand our community college campus away to a 9-12 grade charter school that has no business benefiting from our community college bond funds at this particular location. Let us help the high performing Alliance Charter School continue its good work at an appropriate location in Northeast Los Angeles.

As Councilmember O’Farrell says: “I know we can do this together.” Your part is raising your voice loudly and immediately before the LACCD tries to take action to continue the lease to the Alliance Charter School. Here are the email addresses to send your thoughts and demands to the LACCD Board: , , and . You can also call Councilmember O’Farrell at 213- 473-7013 and let him know you support his vision.

The Van de Kamp’s Coalition thanks Councilmember O’Farrell for showing such firm leadership on this issue. Leadership from our elected officials is the key ingredient we need so badly from our elected officials on so many issues in our neighborhoods. Thank you, Councilmember O’Farrell.

-Van de Kamps Coalition