WATTS — Calling it an "emergency situation," and not a matter of public school choice, Los Angeles Unified School District officials are taking matters into their own hands after announcing earlier this month that Jordan High School will be assuming an emergency restructuring plan that will call for all 50 of its staff and teachers to re-apply for their jobs in the spring.

Beginning Feb. 1, Superintendent Ramon Cortines said one or more trustees will be placed at the school site until the end of the current school year, providing oversight and seeing that staff and students are privy to their roles and responsibilities. While this is taking place, Cortines added, restructuring of the school will occur.

It is not clear how restructuring of the campus will be affected April 15 when Cortines retires and is formally replaced by current deputy Superintendent John Deasy, who was approved by the school board to succeed him on Jan. 11. 

“It is critical that we bring order to the campus, see that students understand and know their roles and responsibilities through multiple assemblies and that staff are held accountable for doing their job as we plan the reorganization of the school into three small independent learning academies run by internal and external partners,” said a letter from Cortines to Jordan staff dated Jan. 12. “This is not Public School Choice; this is an emergency situation that requires immediate attention.”

While Jordan has strengths and has made some improvements over the last few years, Cortines noted that the school still fails to meet academic standards.

According to the district, Jordan has been designated as a Program Improvement school for 13 years, even after receiving additional money in the form of a Quality Education Investment Act grant and several years of working with prestigious partners — UCLA and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2009, Jordan received an Academic Performance Index Score of 560. And it was unsuccessful in testing enough students last May to receive an API score by the State of California for 2010.

"With a graduation rate of 35 percent and proficiency rates in the single and low double-digit ranges, Jordan is in crisis and I need to intervene for the benefit of the students, staff, parents and Watts Community,” Cortines said.

Calls and e-mail’s to Jordan teachers and staff were not returned by Wave press time. However, United Teachers Los Angeles president AJ Duffy said “We are disappointed. We believe it would have been much better for the superintendent to call us up and say ‘look I’ve got to make changes at Jordan. I want to sit down with you and UTLA and figure out together what we can do to make improvements.’ I think we could have absolutely come to some sort of agreement.”

But school officials say Jordan’s staff had ample amount of time to make changes and was afforded the opportunity to devise its own plan. In what was seen as Jordan’s last ditch effort, school administrators submitted a plan of action to the district in December, outlining a framework they believed would help move students forward. Though some ideas were strong, much of it, Cortines said, was “overly ambitious and filled with jargon,” as were they short on how they would be put into action.

Additionally, Cortines viewed the second paragraph on the summary page to “set up the straw man of blame and excuses,” he said about the staff’s claims that academic achievement has been hampered by ills of the community and that they are unable to be as effective due to lack of supportive services.

Exactly what the transformation of Jordan High School will look like has yet to be discussed but according to school officials it will maintain its identity as a school, sharing one sports team and one mission: To improve student achievement for every child. But more importantly, it will built on relationships, relevance, rigor and results so that by the 12th grade each student is an independent learner.

“Everyone bears responsibility for Jordan’s challenges — district headquarters, administrators, school staff and union leadership,” Cortines said.

Note: This article was first released in The Wave's print edition on Jan. 20.