After nearly two hours of debate, the L.A. County Board of Education voted 5–2 to block the Los Angeles Unified School District from taking back Locke High charter school in Watts, keeping Green Dot Public Schools in charge despite LAUSD’s findings that the ca
The screens in the meeting room in Downey flashed the tally only after nearly two hours of waiting—while a graduation ceremony for Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory Academy played out nearby.
In that tense overlap of milestones, members of the L.A. County Board of Education voted to reject an effort by the Los Angeles Unified School District to retake Locke High charter school in Watts. Green Dot Public Schools will continue to run the campus under its pending five-year charter renewal.
The vote was 5–2. Before the result was announced, three board members spoke in support of Green Dot and two opposed it. The outcome turned on two board members who had not signaled how they were leaning.
Cheers broke out among Green Dot well-wishers who had packed the room by the dozens. Eleven grader Genesis Castorena, speaking before the vote, framed the decision in personal terms.
“ I want to come back next year to the school that has shaped me into who I am,” Castorena said. “Locke is not just a building. It is the people inside it.”
Board president James Cross argued that disrupting the education of some 1,000 Locke students was the central issue. If LAUSD had taken control, officials said it would have had to create a new school from scratch on the Locke campus in about two months.
Cross pointed to what would not survive a takeover: about $7 million in Green Dot/Locke-specific grants would not carry forward. Those grants pay for services including mental health support, college-prep support, and partnerships with other entities for career-technical training.
LAUSD has denied Locke’s charter renewal. and under state law. district officials said they had to make the case using data—arguing the Locke High charter “failed to meet or make sufficient progress toward meeting standards that benefit pupils of the school. ” and that “closure is in the best interest of the pupils.”.
LAUSD and county staff reached the same conclusion to deny the charter, citing low scores on the 11th grade state test as the main concern. They also raised issues including high student absences and graduation rates that trailed nearby campuses.
Green Dot. for its part. presented data it said shows improvements in test scores and other academic measures after students enrolled in the charter school. The school serves a high-poverty area where families face steep challenges. and Green Dot said students’ test performance was low before arriving at Locke.
“We need to come back next year,” Castorena added earlier—capturing how the vote landed as more than policy.
Green Dot Chief Executive Cristina de Jesus argued that the school is built around support for students facing major barriers. “Every program is designed with a single premise: Students facing the greatest barriers need the most intentional support. ” de Jesus said. She also described Locke’s staffing model, pointing to what she said is an eight-to-one student-to-adult ratio.
“Locke’s eight to one student-to-adult ratio ensures every student is known and consistently engaged by an adult invested in their growth,” she said, citing the school’s operating ethos.
De Jesus also said the staffing includes seven mental-health professionals and a foster-youth specialist.
Still, not every board member was persuaded. Theresa Montaño said she had reviewed Green Dot’s materials repeatedly but concluded the evidence did not match the need.
“I looked at this data over and over and over,” Montaño said. “The students were not achieving. There was red bleeding throughout the entire report,” she said, referring to the color of the indicators representing inadequate achievement levels.
Montaño argued that keeping the school under Green Dot would mean an inappropriate continued experiment on children.
Margaret Granado echoed that concern from a different angle, saying LAUSD has proven it can run effective schools and that returning control of Locke would be an “opportunity.”
Granado added that the campus would not return to the way it was the last time LAUSD was in charge, in 2008.
But Yvonne Chan said it would be a disservice to students and staff to dismiss signs of growth. She said “good intentions” would not be enough, but argued Locke could demonstrate more.
“You have shown growth,” Chan said, emphasizing that the school has won trust from the community and local officials. She questioned whether supplanting the charter is “in the best interest of the kids… To me, closing this school will have absolutely immediate, disastrous consequences.”
The decision means Green Dot will continue to manage a campus that has long been viewed as among LAUSD’s worst—at least in the hardest-to-serve group. When LAUSD approved a teacher-led petition to relinquish the school in 2007, it was a first for the district.
It was also a first for Green Dot, which typically creates new public charter schools from scratch, one grade at a time, to build a culture of motivated families who opt in.
Instead, at Locke, Green Dot agreed to manage an existing campus described in the record as “massively struggling,” an “eyesore,” and tied to periodic brawls and truancy, with single-digit academic proficiency rates, a 40% graduation rate, and few college graduates.
While Locke improved over 17 years, the argument on the table was that nearby district-operated schools have also risen. Recently, the text states, test scores at nearby schools have exceeded those of Locke, even as Locke’s scores have increased.
With the county board’s 5–2 vote. the immediate question—whether LAUSD would take over Locke High charter school in Watts—has been answered for now. Green Dot remains in charge. and Locke’s students will keep moving forward on the campus they know. through the structure and funding supporters say has kept them engaged.
Locke High Watts LAUSD Green Dot Public Schools L.A. County Board of Education charter renewal Genesis Castorena Cristina de Jesus