In 2015, this network became her L.A.-based nonprofit. She wanted to avoid the colonizing mind-set, where white parents would, for example, immediately insist on installing an organic garden.Įverts Mykytyn gradually developed ties with researchers, academics, thinkers, community leaders and like-minded parents. The Aldama effort was an important early spark for dual-language programs that have now expanded substantially across the nation’s second-largest school system.Įverts Mykytyn did not see enrolling in neighborhood schools as either a sacrifice or as merely a strategy for white children to benefit from diversity, but as part of a community building effort that would benefit all. Later, Everts Mykytyn was instrumental in developing a middle school follow-up program on the campus of nearby Franklin High School. The program instead took hold at Aldama Elementary, opening in 2008. Their first try was at Yorkdale Elementary, which wasn’t receptive. Working with school district officials, she and other parents were the driving force behind creating and sustaining a dual-language program, which paired English-only students with native Spanish speakers to make all students fully bilingual. She began to see things differently and led a small group that sought to improve local schools by creating a high-quality, academic offering. In playgrounds and grocery store lines, other white moms would talk about how the local schools were not the right fit for their children - filled with students from low-income minority families and recent immigrants. ’ to ‘I am sending my kid to my neighborhood public school.’”Įverts Mykytyn began her own intellectual evolution as a new mom in her gentrifying Highland Park neighborhood. over the past decade, Courtney moved parents from ‘I’d like to send my kid to my neighborhood school, but.
“In a time when millions and millions were spent creating new charter schools and magnet programs for parents to feel comfortable sending their kids to public schools, Courtney asked parents to instead examine why they were uncomfortable in the first place,” said former L.A.
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