Parent Engagement

Victory For Shirley?

Citizens Of The World Charter School West Valley announces that they will move to a private facility next year. Will they follow through?

Carl J. Petersen
Age of Awareness
Published in
3 min readDec 22, 2021

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“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for the Shirley community.”

- Francine Matthews

For almost two years, the community at Shirley Avenue Elementary School has been fighting back against an invasion by the Citizens of the World nationwide chain of charter schools. In a David versus Goliath type of fight, the public school community at this neighborhood school with a long history found themselves battling with a privately run charter school backed by Hollywood money. The Shirley community endured attacks on their First Amendment rights, harassment from LAUSD officials, and a lack of support from their elected representatives. Their students lost access to rooms previously used to provide special education services, a robotics program, and music education so that the charter school could be given space to which they were not entitled. The situation appeared to be headed in an even more dire direction as pro-charter school board member Nick Melvoin is set to become their new representative under redistricting in January. Still, the community soldiered on.

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Carl J. Petersen
Age of Awareness

Parent, special education advocate and former LAUSD School Board candidate. Still fighting for the children. www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com