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Team Effort: Lorena Padilla-Melendez
(second from right) and some of her staff of community organizers. |
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Warming a Neighborhood to a New School
by
Racquel Palmese
"We engage
the community from the time the need (for a new school) is identified in a
specific area, and we stay with the project until the school is open,"
says Lorena Padilla-Melendez, director of community outreach for LAUSD. "Once we
know which community will benefit (from a new school), we begin gathering
community members. We work very closely with the architect and
construction contractors in taking
information to the community, addressing concerns and providing
information that allows for a more informed engagement process."
Padilla heads up a group of some 20 community organizers who are
responsible for what is often the most difficult aspect of the LAUSD
building program – getting a neighborhood behind a new school project.
They are the foot soldiers, usually the first faces anyone in the
community sees. They are the ones who deliver the news when people have to
surrender their homes or businesses under eminent domain statutes to make
way for a new school.
"We mean change, and change is not always welcome, even if it's a school,"
says Padilla. "Everyone loves the idea of a new school, only not in their
back yards."
The most difficult challenge for the community outreach group is the
relocation process. "People are fearful, and they typically do not trust
government entities," she says. "For them to have to go through this and
maybe be displaced is extremely stressful. It really requires that you ago
above what the law requires by developing enhanced relocation programs and
being compassionate. We know that they will be justly compensated for
their properties, but we
can't compensate them for the memories they have in their homes."
Community Outreach works through the LAUSD Real Estate Division, which
hires relocation firms to ensure that people are provided all the
services they need, in the appropriate languages. "I find that people are
generally very reasonable," she relates. "Most parents and community
members want the same thing – beautiful buildings where their children are
safe, where they have technology and athletic fields and green space."
Padilla says that green space has become one of the top priorities in
LAUSD communities, which tend to be inner city areas.
"You have to remember," Padilla emphasizes, "that we're building 145 new
schools, and the engagement process for any one of them can last from
three
to five, or even seven years. There are community members in some areas
that have been involved in a project from the time we identify the site.
Once the site selection is done, then we begin to see excitement in
people's faces, especially parents. What keeps us going is that we know
what a new school means to a community. It improves the neighborhood,
offers open, green space, a place where a community can gather for events
and meetings. It means new opportunities, new beginnings. A school really
brings a lot of hope to a community."
Padilla says that once people start seeing the school actually being
built, much of their agitation turns into excitement. "We culminate the
whole process with a ribbon cutting ceremony," she says, "and even those
who have been opposing the school usually come to the party."
She recalls
a group of retirees who called themselves the "Looky Loos," and who
strongly opposed the new
Arleta
High School going up in their neighborhood. Despite their initial
opposition, she says, "within the first three months of the school
opening, they raised over $25,000 for school functions. They now have so
much pride in the school - they watch over it on weekends. They have become
true owners, where at first they were very concerned. We were able to have
them be part of this process, and as a result it's their school now."
Padilla has been in her current position for seven years. "It's a hard job
sometimes," she says. "I often tell people that if it wasn't schools, I
couldn't do it. But I believe it's important to our future; there's a big
need for new facilities. The people in my department are committed to
doing this job, despite all the difficulties that exist and all the
different things that can play out. What you'll find is that most of my
organizers are grass roots people that have committed their entire lives
to improving people's communities. They are involved in activism and
social work. For them, for all of us, it's more than a job, it's a passion
and a commitment.
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