Lausd Testimony - George Bartleson

Application 06-12-005 et al. Exhibit Date: August

, 2008

PREPARED TESTIMONY OF GEORGE BARTLESON

Q:

Please state your name, professional position, business address, and

employer. A:

My name is George Bartleson, and I am principal of Dorsey High School in Los

Angeles, California. My business address is Dorsey High School, 3537 Farmdale Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90016. My employer is the Los Angeles Unified School District. Q:

On whose behalf are you providing this testimony?

A:

I am testifying on behalf of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Q:

What is the purpose of your testimony?

A:

The purpose of my testimony is to describe the student body at Dorsey High

School, to discuss the various uses of the Dorsey campus, and to explain my concerns about the proposed at-grade crossing. Q:

What is your educational and professional background?

A:

I have been Principal of Dorsey High School for four years. Prior to that, I spent

three years as Assistant Principal at Hamilton High School, and two years as Assistant

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Principal at Columbus Middle School. Before becoming an administrator, I spent fourteen years as a teacher at Columbus Middle School, teaching English and Social Studies. I have an M.A. in Education Administration from California State University, Los Angeles. I am a graduate of Western Kentucky University, with a B.A. in English. Q:

What are your duties as principal?

A:

As principal of the high school, I am responsible for overseeing every aspect of

the day-to-day operation of the school. I supervise all of the faculty and staff, including the school’s security officers. I ensure that our students meet academic and attendance requirements, and establish programs to improve student achievement. I am personally involved in decision-making to ensure student safety both on campus and, to the best of our ability, as students travel to and from campus. I manage the school’s budget and finance, and I serve as the liaison between the school and the community. I promote the short-term and long-term goals of the school, and I am the chief instructional officer. As Chief Instructional Officer, I ensure that all decisions – including budget, hiring, and facilities upgrades – support the instructional program. Q:

Please tell us about Dorsey High School. Where is the school located?

A:

Dorsey High School is located at 3537 Farmdale Avenue, Los Angeles,

California. That is at the southwest corner of Farmdale Avenue and Exposition Boulevard. Dorsey High School is adjacent to Rancho Cienega Park, which is a City of Los Angeles park. We are fortunate to be able to use the facilities at the park for our sporting teams, including swimming and football. Q:

What is the student population of the school?

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A:

Dorsey High School has approximately 1800 students. Fifty-five percent are

African American, and forty-four percent are Latino. We have 380 special education students, and 350 English language learners for whom English is a second language. Dorsey is a “Title I” school under the No Child Left Behind Act and has been identified as a low performing school. Q:

How many faculty and staff work at Dorsey?

A:

We have approximately 100 teachers. With staff, we have a total of over 150

employees working at Dorsey each day. The school has seven security officers and two Los Angeles Unified School District police officers, although all of these security personnel are not all present at all times of day. Q:

What is the academic schedule at Dorsey?

A:

Dorsey is on a traditional school schedule. The year begins after Labor Day in

September and ends in mid-June. Over the summer, we have a Summer School session in July and August. Approximately 900 students attend the summer session. Q:

What times of day is school in session?

A:

During the school year, we begin at 8:00 a.m. and the dismissal bell rings at 3:08

p.m. In summer, we have two sessions – one that ends at 10:00 a.m. and another that ends at 12:010 p.m. Q:

Are those the only hours that students are on campus?

A:

Not at all. Students and other community members are on campus at nearly all

hours of the day. Dorsey has 24 sports teams, including football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, and wrestling. Students participating in sports teams practice on the campus or in the adjacent park in the afternoons. Parents frequently visit campus during this time

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to observe games or practice, usually parking in the school’s parking lot off of Farmdale. There are also about 20 clubs that meet on campus, sometimes in after school hours. Other entities also make use of our facilities or operate on our campus. From 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Manual Arts/Crenshaw/Dorsey Adult School has instruction on our campus. It is attended by students from Dorsey who are missing credits, as well as by adults from the community. Through the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Youth Services program, our facilities are rented to other organizations to use outside of school hours, including the evenings and all day on weekends. For instance, Pop Warner football uses our PE field to practice on weekends, even bringing in lights for nighttime play. Our gymnasium is used by churches and other groups establishing youth leagues or other activities and is open seven days a week, from 8 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night on many days. This campus is vibrant many hours of the day and on weekends. Q:

Please tell us how students arrive at Dorsey in the morning on a typical

school day, beginning with what time students arrive. A:

We want students here by 7:50 a.m. There are the early birds who arrive between

6:30 and 7 a.m. More students arrive around 7:30 a.m., and close to 8 a.m. there are a large number of students arriving. Q:

How do students arrive at your campus?

A:

A large number of students are dropped off by parents, relatives, guardians, or

others in cars. These students are primarily dropped off on Farmdale Avenue, although occasionally a parent will drop students on Rodeo Road. Farmdale becomes heavily congested in the morning as a result of all of these drop offs. Parents often stop right in the middle of the street to let their children out and wait to ensure the children cross

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safely and proceed into school. At the same time, teachers and staff are arriving and parking in our lot on Farmdale, right near where the students are being dropped off. Autos come from both the north and south to drop children off, and there are hundreds of cars doing this each weekday morning. We also have four school buses full of students, and three or four special education buses each carrying a few students. Some students walk to school, both from the north and south. There are a handful of students who take the MTA bus that stops on Jefferson Boulevard who cross Exposition on their way to school. A few students bicycle to school and a few drive their own cars. Q:

Have their ever been any accidents involving students during the morning

arrival hours? A:

Yes. One student was hit by a car while being dropped off on Farmdale. The

student was not seriously injured, fortunately. Q:

What kind of supervision is present when students are arriving?

A:

I have Dorsey staff and campus security aides positioned strategically throughout

the campus and on the perimeter. Q:

During the day, are students free to come to and leave from the campus?

A:

No. This is a closed campus, meaning that all the gates are closed during the

school day. Any student arriving late or departing early can depart only through one monitored gate. Q:

So that means that no students leave the campus before dismissal?

A:

That’s not entirely true. There are a number of seniors who work and who have

permission to leave the campus at 1:00 p.m. There are also students who are taking

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classes at local community colleges who leave campus early as well. In addition to those who are authorized to leave, from time to time I see students scale the fences to leave campus and ditch school. These fences are eight foot high wrought iron gates and are quite difficult to scale, but some students do it when they are determined to get out. There are certainly students leaving campus at hours other than at the final bell, but probably 90 percent of students leave at the final bell. Q:

What is the atmosphere like at dismissal time?

A:

It is rowdy and boisterous. When students arrive in the morning, they are a bit

sleepy, but not in the afternoon. Most students exit out of one of our gates on Farmdale, though some also exit from the gate on Rodeo. There is a lot of energy in the student body when they are leaving. While students don’t fight much on campus, there are fights off campus and we attempt to be there to intervene and prevent fighting and injury. I can tell if there is the potential for a fight on a given day by the way students are behaving. For instance, if a larger number than usual of students are heading for Exposition, I know that something is afoot. I then notify my security officers to increase their presence in the area where a fight might occur. Q:

How do students get home from campus?

A:

Most students are picked up by parents or walk home. Fewer students are picked

up in cars in the afternoon, so there are more students walking home in the afternoon than arriving on foot in the morning. Most students leave school through one of the gates on Farmdale Avenue. Students head in all directions, although the burrito stand on Jefferson and Farmdale, just north of Exposition, is a popular hangout.

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Q:

Are there other times of day when students or other community members

arrive or leave from the campus in significant number? A:

Although about 90 percent of students leave the campus immediately after the

final bell at 3:08, a number of students stay on campus or travel to the adjacent city park for athletics. Parents often come to watch practice and use our parking lot on Farmdale for their cars. Our football games take place at 7:00 p.m. in the adjacent park and can draw a large number of spectators, depending on which teams are playing. Q:

How would you describe the behavior of your typical student?

A:

Our students are typical teenagers, although some come from populations where

they have developed a distrust of adults. Students are very distracted, both by the events occurring in their lives and by technologies that prevent them from hearing or focusing fully on their environment. I have seen students run into or across Exposition Boulevard to get to a fight. A younger student, not from this high school, was killed when hit by a car crossing Rodeo Road. Although there is a crosswalk on Rodeo, I regularly see students crossing outside of the crosswalk. Students also will deliberately cross the street very slowly, right in front of waiting cars. Some very common distractions are cell phones and iPods or other music players. I intend to ban music players from the campus next year because they have become so prevalent. I have already banned cell phone usage, but students can have cell phones in their bags and use them when they leave school. I plan to confiscate any music players I see on campus, but I cannot prevent a student from carrying one in his or her bag and using it only before and after school.

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Q:

Are you familiar with the design of the proposed at-grade crossing submitted

by the Expo Authority? A:

Yes.

Q:

Do you have any concerns about the design of the proposed at-grade

crossing? A:

Yes.

Q:

What are your concerns?

A:

I am very concerned about the prospect of an at-grade crossing. From my years

of experience working with students of this age, and from my specific experiences at Dorsey, I believe that students will take risks with the train. Students will try to race the train to be daring, or will jump the gates to beat the train in order to catch up with their friends. I have students who jump the eight-foot fences around campus in order to ditch school, so I am aware that students are willing to go to great lengths in order to misbehave. Also, teenagers have problems with depression and suicide. There are always some students who say they want to harm themselves, and I am concerned that having an at-grade train crossing nearby will provide an easier opportunity for such grave harm. I am also concerned about student behavior in the “holding pen.” Currently, we have earthquake drills during which the entire student body is evacuated through one set of gates. During these exercises, there is frequent misbehavior as a result of the close contact between students. For instance, students might start pushing their friends as a joke, and then accidentally push a student they don’t know. That student will push back, and tempers will flare. In my opinion, we will see similar behavior when hundreds of

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students are corralled into the “holding pen.” We would likely be required to post a security officer at the “holding pen” in order to break up any fights and arrange for backup if necessary. I should mention here that this school is in gang territory — to our south is Blood territory and to our north is the 18th Street Gang. I forbid the students from wearing gang colors, but there is tension among members of rival gangs. They do not fight on campus, but they do fight around the school in the afternoons. We try to respond to any fights offcampus, but this often requires that we have the school police car travel to that location. I am concerned about any crossing option that would either lead to increased opportunity for student conflict to develop due to close quarters or that would make it more difficult for the school police officers to respond to any incidents. Finally, as I mentioned above, we have close to four hundred special education students and 350 English language learners. Although these students have differing degrees of disability or proficiency with the English language, these populations of students are at risk of harm because they fail to understand the warnings provided at the at-grade crossing. Some of our special education students are autistic, and while they have constant adult supervision, these sensitive students might be easily disturbed by the trains crossing so close by. I am also concerned that if our driveway is relocated, as the current plans propose, that it will bring the driveway very close to a major entry gate to the school. I am concerned about all of the students in such close proximity to the staff leaving in their cars. Q:

Do you have any concerns about a pedestrian overpass crossing?

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A:

Yes, I do. If Farmdale were open, I believe that students would not use the

overpass, and would cross the tracks in an unsafe manner at street level. However, if Farmdale were closed, my personnel would be required to use the overpass crossing in order to reach students on the far side of the tracks. This would delay our ability to respond to fights in that area. Q:

Do you have any concerns about an underground crossing?

A:

Yes, serious concerns. We would have to monitor such a crossing at all times.

Students love to go where we cannot see them and would certainly take advantage of such a tunnel to engage in bad behavior. Also, the community at large could use such a crossing and without constant monitoring we would risk exposing students to robberies, gang-related violence, sexual predators, and drug dealers. Q:

Do you have any concerns about a fly-over crossing where the train would be

elevated? A:

I have some concerns about visibility and about noise. In order to maintain

student safety, the train overcrossing would have to be designed so that my personnel could easily see across the tracks and around the supports for the train. Otherwise students would take advantage of the ability to hide from supervision. As far as noise is concerned, the track would run right past our Ninth Grade Academy, which is our largest group of students and is housed in the only building that will accommodate this large a group. These students are the most distractable at the high school level and would have the greatest problem with noise.

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I believe that a fly-over crossing could be designed to address these concerns, and I think that a fly-over crossing would be more protective of student safety then any of the at-grade options. Q:

What do you think would present the safest option for your students?

A:

I believe that having the train run below ground would ensure that students would

not be able to access the tracks, and that there would be no change in our ability to respond to emergencies or violence anywhere around the campus. If the train cannot run underground, elevating the train would eliminate the potential for student - rail contact and would not significantly interfere with our ability to maintain safety around our campus. Q:

Have any parents expressed concerns about the safety of their children using

the proposed crossings? A:

Yes, parents and community members have approached me to express concern

over the proposed at-grade crossing design. Q:

Does this complete your testimony?

A:

Yes, it does.

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