Breaking: Building Inequity – Discrepancies surface between Archer Forward, Brentwood School Education Master Plan
March 3, 2018
Although Archer and Brentwood School share a block of Sunset Boulevard, the similarities between their construction plans are anything but close.
Archer is currently in the process of building a new academic center, while Brentwood is renovating both their East and West campuses.
Shown in this data, Brentwood School has had far fewer restrictions placed on them than Archer has in order to complete their construction.
All of this information was taken from public record.
Archer Assistant Head of School and Middle School Director Karen Pavliscak said that these differences between the plans were “deeply concerning.”
“I do know that the head of school, the board, and many other senior administrators [at Archer] have worked really, really hard to meet every expectation the community has put forth,” Pavliscak said. “My understanding was that there was an equal expectation for every school, and to see that that is not indeed true is very disappointing and heartbreaking.”
The Oracle reached out to the Brentwood School Campus Project, but they did not respond as of publishing.
“As an Archer administrator, I am singularly focused on getting the students of Archer the facilities they need and making sure our program is top notch for the future female leaders,” Pavliscak said. “I’d like to think that as independent schools, that we are working together and facing similar obstacles in a way that is creating opportunities for every school to thrive in the area.”
The Oracle is currently investigating these discrepancies more in-depth and will be publishing more articles on the topic in the future.
Alisa Becket • Mar 10, 2018 at 1:58 pm
Excellent article and graphic! Very clear and informative. I hope your piece can be published for a larger audience.
Susan Macdonald • Mar 9, 2018 at 8:23 pm
Great article Maya and the graffic is such a good way to summarize it. Whilst there are a few different situational things that might justify some differences in planning consent conditions this exposes the awful inequity in a planning system that is meant to be equitable and transparent. As a planner I honestly do not understand it unless they had a previous masteplan that had consent to certain aspects. That could be an interesting thing to explore further to understand how it unfolded. I thought it was very interesting to see the NIMBYism play out here and whilst we want democracy, decision making still must be fair from case to case and there are a lot of discrepancies here. I had wondered about what was approved at Brentwood so thanks for informing us.
Howard B Wernick M.D. • Mar 6, 2018 at 11:04 am
” RES IPSA LOQUITOR ”
A crystal clear analysis the way in which 2 schools are treated by the Los Angeles City Council.
Anna Brodsky • Mar 5, 2018 at 9:34 pm
Thank you for writing this article, Maya! It’s so shocking to see the differences in how the two schools are being treated and I really hope that this piece can generate change within the Brentwood community. You’re doing incredible things–amazing job!!
Anika Bhavnani • Mar 5, 2018 at 5:10 pm
Maya, I am so proud of you and this story. You need to expose this truth and the community needs to know that the way Archer has been treated compared to Brentwood is not fair. I hope you continue to investigate and put the facts out there because we need to know them. SUPER DUPER proud of your hard work, keep killing it!!!!!
Kerry Hernandez • Mar 5, 2018 at 12:22 pm
Fabulous article Maya! The discrepancies are unbelievable! Thank you for bringing this to light…Putting it side by side like that is really eye opening, making me angry and question why. Keep the articles about this coming!
Anna Allgeyer • Mar 5, 2018 at 11:53 am
This is incredible Maya. Expose the truth!
Susan Bagley • Mar 5, 2018 at 11:43 am
I think this article is pretty one sided. I see the data, but let’s look at the facts. The author has not touched upon the relationship of Brentwood and the Veteran’s Adminstration and their duties under that contract. Brentwood is also a K-12 with two campuses. Archer is limited in athletic facilities. Brentwood has world class facilities which are used by Brentwood, lots of other schools and the veteran’s administration. The number of parking spaces Brentwood is building is appropriate because it is a bigger school and they should do that. The increase in number of students was set in the 30 yr master plan. When that will be done is still up in the air. And I for one like the Archer policy of 0 drop-offs and frankly I think that brentwood should be under the same restriction for the middle and upper school. The elementary school seems different in this regard as younger children often need drop-offs.
Scarlet Levin • Mar 5, 2018 at 12:46 am
Wow, Maya! This was a very interesting (and a bit off-putting) article. I hope this gets more attention within the Brentwood community, because your article makes it pretty clear that the differences between our schools’ building plans exist. Great job!
Mayette Moran • Mar 4, 2018 at 10:20 pm
This chart / information was very eyeopening to me. The fact that two schools, on the same block, could have such differences in building regulations is very disappointing to me. Both schools turn out great students, so they should both have equal opportunities to make the environment the best it can be for those students and teachers to thrive in. Great article, Maya.
Gemma Brand-Wolf • Mar 4, 2018 at 10:17 pm
First of all, GO Maya! Wield those feminist lenses with all you’ve got! You are my SHERO! In all seriousness, this is an amazing article and an extremely important investigation. Especially in our current political and cultural climate, it is easy to overlook the smallest acts of discrimination in order to address those that demand the attention of the greater public. While I would never suggest that we take energy away from these larger issues, I do believe that, when you get down to it, they are caused by the smallest injustices, by the prejudices ingrained in our society’s systems. So, thank you Maya, for writing this article and giving a bit of attention to the building blocks that make up the greater walls of this slowly (but surely) crumbling infrastructure. This blatantly obvious sexism makes me SO angry. I am SEETHING.
Stefan Pollack • Mar 4, 2018 at 6:48 pm
Bravo for such an enlightening article. We often talk about this injustice every time we drive by Brentwood. Let’s make sure the LA Times and the Brentwood News sees this and investigates.
Rita Hsiao • Mar 4, 2018 at 5:07 pm
Whaat… I love and hate that you wrote this eye opening piece. That chart is depressing. Hanging on for a future WHY. Great work, thanks, Maya!
Roberta Clark • Mar 4, 2018 at 11:59 am
The differences in the rulings for the two schools are really appalling. Archer has bent over backward to be good neighbors and has through the years shown that they have covered the need in the neighborhood for an excellent girls education.
Christy Hobart • Mar 4, 2018 at 11:36 am
Wow. As a parent at Archer, I knew we had very strict building constraints on our much-needed project and that the school was doing all it could to comply. I did not know, however, that just across the street, things were much more lax.
I wonder why this is? Why the different treatment?
Thank you, Maya, for bringing this to our attention in such a well-written, clear article. I will be following the issue.
Amy Wernick • Mar 4, 2018 at 2:07 am
The disparity between the requirements and limitations put upon each school is striking and, quite frankly, very disturbing. I am anxious to read any future articles you plan to write to further explain the inequities you clearly set forth above.
Courtney Wernick • Mar 3, 2018 at 11:46 pm
Great article! Very interesting to read about the similarities and differences between the two schools and their construction plans.