The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 720

SLIE Cos Angeles Tiulcs Sunday October 23 1983 WPart IX 1- I I ROSEMARY RAUL Los Angeles Times Magnet School at Crossroads After Decade as 'Perfect' 1 4 I 1 44 i4 1 '41ii 1 -fe 46'S pi1111 i La 1 1 IL Its qr 11101mo t'Irt lii 5 Al 4 isp I ir vz--- 0 44 i Als 4 lz 04 i 04 lo -t 1-itn 1r- liJ1 4 4 17) 14 401 ot 1 ill odAf P-I- 4 41004w 144 Akip 411116- 7 7s go 't 4 4 i 01140411100 :44 i 4 0 dP" 7 "4 4 4'ic4' 4 '4: 'ii 40tIrts 't s' 0 'S14 '1414 :4 4 A4 i-v 'IPr i' 7 itA4tt 4 4 3 1 'i sktittuAm' tAii3O 1 iii4140tiiiikif ataaUO'N 'It's really like a family here I'll do a lot to guard that I intend to be here to make sure this is a place my daughter would like to come to' Watson chairwoman of committee for gifted children leads discussion of parents 'The school has not realized that times have changed' Einberg is chairman of parents' group 4 --AF 4 Am 1 I 4sremospoolow wool AO 44 it If 11 rwl: :1 1 lk ook atott ActZtika of H1 4 41P 19:9 4: V4 tei e- 111 sl Its' :4 I 0- 111 6 0t A 44 4 -I 4 A-J- 14 1 it 4 I i 'ttiF90 1-- A''' vir c14144 1011 41-- i 11'z it 4 ''1' lilt 1 44 0:: cif 4 0 6 i 1 low ti 1 By MARY CURTIUS Times Staff Writer In 1972 a group of black and white parents on the Westside founded what they hoped would become the perfect school A decade later the school is wracked by dissension among the parents and staff over what the school has become and what it should be From the beginning The Community School was a maverick It was an idea that grew out of rap sessions in the Pico-Robertson area among black and white parents who were unhappy with the racial segregation of their two neighborhood Avenue School which was overwhelmingly white and Crescent Heights School less than a mile away which was almost completely black Parents proposed merging the two schools' student notion flatly turned down by the Los Angeles Board of Education They came back with an idea to form an alternative school that would draw volunteers from each campus to an integrated program that would stress ethnic studies The board citing "tensions in the neighborhood" such a program would cause again said no until parents threatened court action The threat worked Parents were given permission to open the school in four borrowed classrooms on the two existing campuses School Set Apart Parents were heavily involved in all aspects of the school from its inception and they have remained up more than two dozen committees to review everything from textbooks to teacher selection and paying for extras ranging from landscaping to computer terminals It was the level of parental involvement and the school's stated belief that education should be open humanistic and heavily laced with ethnic studies and cultural relations that initially set the school apart from others in the district "I lived in the neighborhood and my next-door neighbor said 'Selma there's something very interesting going on'" recalled Community School kindergarten teacher Selma Heller "I went to one meeting and right there and then I knew that when they took applications for teachers I'd do it" In the 10 years Heller has been with the school it has evolved from the chaos of the early days when the 120 original students were divided into classrooms on the Canfield and Crescent Heights campuses "and we had to claw and scratch for everything" to a district magnet school with 340 students 70 of whom are minorities and 30 of whom are white Students come from 95 schools some as far away as Gardena and Eagle Rock Two-hundred are on the school's waiting list this year according to Principal Sandy Wilkins And today the school wins kudos from at least one school board member Rita Walters who lives in the Pico-Robertson area said she regards the school "as a flower out there on the Westside that has been nurtured and cultivated by a group of parents that really put their money where their mouth is" Today The Community School is a cluster of 12 'I was really excited about participatory management here Now I think it's wearing me down' Wilkins is principal of The Community School 'We think ethnic studies are really valuable in this day and age and that was an extra plus for us in deciding on this school' Sewall parent second from left well-worn bungalows and a piece of asphalt carved out of the backside of Louis Pasteur Junior High School and surrounded by a high chain link fence But it is also far more according to staff students and parents The feel of the school is different from many public schools Students and staff are on a first-name basis In grades through 6 students are often found sitting in circles on carpeted floors with their instructors rather than in rows of desks facing a blackboard Parents walk freely about the school volunteering as classroom aides monitoring the playground chatting with teachers or helping with bake sales Committee meetings seem almost endless Children in grades through 5 are not graded but receive instead written evaluations from their teachers From kindergarten on children are instructed in cultural relations and are not separated by race or ability level Wilkins said "It is harder for the teachers but great for the kids" said Heller "When my children sit down at a table to read I make sure there is a smattering of everything included in that group" Even on the playground teachers strive to keep children from separating into ethnic groups Wilkins said She recalled a time when a teacher noticed that only black sixth-grade girls were playing tetherball Please see MAGNET Page 12 Zimmerman Ga-liTitV141111 Poet Fights Atom Sword With Pen Also Tapes Fonda Firm Specializes in Messages of the Political Left Anti-Nuclear Poem Published First as $3000 Paid Ad in Newspaper 0 IA- 4- tz4t ii 4i0)1 r)r I' kit431: '1 'Iwiti I 40101'7 4011fi CO riZr pole" fi rM wor '4' 2 if I (1 T1 'ti'''i' '''''''''''114 1iiiiiii: i i il At- ''''11 s''''' 40 l'- i'r: r' go 4 0 4: AP' 0 7'-f- 'i1 z-- -I- i By ALAN CITRON Times Staff Writer When Santa Monica's Daniel Bloom marches in disarmament parades the anti-nuclear poet is not hailed or even recognized among the leaders of the local peace movement An introspective person who feels most comfortable expressing himself on paper Bloom has maintained a low profile since he wrote and published his "Nuclear Disarmamotta" a poem that explores many people's darkest fears about atomic weapons "I've never been a joiner of groups" said the 34-year-old Bloom "I marched in some anti-Vietnam rallies in college My feeling about the nuclear arms race was that everyone agrees we have to make it sane but no one knows how" Bloom decided to take a stab at an answer last year when he was working in the public relations office at the University of Alaska The Massachusetts native had flown to an island within sight of the Russian border and was startled by the close geographic proximity of the two countries ELLEN JASKOL Los Angeles nines Jack Amen Sidney Galanty and Bill Zimmerman on set where they are making a new Jane Fonda workout video By JOHN MITCHELL Times Staff Writer Jane Fonda sat in the director's chair in a dingy studio on Pico Boulevard watching her own performance in an exercise video and bending to a funky thumping disco beat Fonda was pleased She smiled and rocked gently in her chair reviewing her latest "Workout" video recording Suddenly Fonda frowned She pointed to some wrinkles on the screen There were unsightly bags in her tights during one exercise routine She wanted it fixed It would be fixed The taping marked a reunion of sorts Fonda's video was being produced by Bill Zimmerman Sidney Galanty and Jack Fiman of Zimmerman Galanty Fiman Inc a corporation that specializes in making television commercials for liberal and leftist political campaigns and causes Fonda's recording of course is no political commercial but it helps pay the bills for the Santa Monica-based firm Her first Workout video recording went platinum grossing more than $2 million 'We Don't Feel That Way' "We have very strong beliefs" Zimmerman 42 said "Most people in the business we are in will take any client that walks through the as an attorney will defend anyone guilty or innocent because they feel it is their professional duty "We don't feel that way We feel it is our duty to provide service to the political ideas and individuals we believe in As a result we only work for people on the progressive end of the political spectrum We don't work for Republicans and we don't work for conservative Democrats I Zimmerman Galanty and Fiman first worked together in 1976 during Tom Hayden's ill-fated campaign for the US Senate In 1982 they also handled Hayden's media in his successful bid for a Westside Assembly I seat portraying the former 1960s anti-war radical as a family man worried about community affairs Over the years they have built up a sizable clientele of organizations and politicians who have liberal causes but little expertise in promoting them in the mass media "We tried to argue that people with grass roots causes ought to think about advertising on television and radio" Zimmerman said "The amounts of money are not always prohibitive and raising funds could be considered political work" In 1976 most grass roots organizations viewed Inspired by Another Poem Inspired by the "Desiderata" a poem about life that was widely quoted in the 1960s Bloom wrote a poetic plea for world sanity "Go placidly amid the scorched cities and the burning bodies and remember what peace there once was on this Earth" the poem began "As far as possible open up your eyes to the alarming rate of arms buildup and try to think of alternatives for we pass this way but once" Bloom probably could have gotten the poem published in a literary or anti-nuclear magazine Instead he contacted the Village Voice and inquired how much it would cost to buy a full-page advertisement in the liberal New York weekly newspaper The $3000 price tag was out of Bloom's range On a Please see POET Page 13 Major Publicity Victories Defeats 1980 Initiative to tax big oil companies on June California ballot 1980 Opposition to anti-rent control initiative on June California ballot 1980 Nonsmokers' initiative on the November California ballot 1982 Toney Anaya's campaign for governor of New Mexico 1982 Tom Hayden's Assembly campaign 1982 Nuclear freeze initiative on November California ballot 1983 Harold Washington's campaign for mayor of Chicago Defeat Victory Defeat Victory Victory Victory Victory IIICid3 Political activists come to the aid of Los Angeles homeowners Story on Page 3 Their work has brought them several awards including a CLIO for a 60-second spot for opponents of a plan to store nuclear waste in New Mexico In a dramatic moment they illustrated that any truck carrying nuclear waste could blow a tire and have an accident In another commercial the firm used five fat pigs to dramatize a commercial for a group sponsoring a 1980 initiative to tax profits of oil companies in California Please see POLITICS Page 8 television advertising as too commercial manipulative and capitalistic Zimmerman said He said that even he had to be convinced of its merits As the firm's reputation grew the three took on the campaigns for Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and New Mexico Gov Toney Anaya in addition to handling the media for numerous candidates seeking state and congressional office They have also done campaigns opposing an anti-rent control measure urging a nuclear freeze and supporting an anti-smoking initiative.