De
La Hoya Presents Check to Green Dot Public Schools
At Oscar De
La Hoya Ánimo High School Graduation on June 19th
Green Dot
Public Schools, the largest charter school organization in Los
Angeles, announced Thursday that ten time World Champion
boxer, Oscar De La Hoya, donated $3.5 million to fund his
namesake Oscar De La Hoya Ánimo Charter High School and
additional Green Dot schools. De La Hoya presented this gift
to Green Dot Public Schools at the commencement ceremony of
the Oscar De La Hoya Ánimo Charter High School on Thursday,
June 19th. The ceremony took place at Sullivan
Field at the Loyola Marymount University campus.
De
La Hoya, whose foundation is dedicated to helping
underprivileged families in East Los Angeles, has been
actively involved with his namesake school since its inception
in 2003 and delivered the commencement speech last year to the
first-ever graduating class. De La Hoya is a strong believer
in supporting the community and often visits the school to
encourage the students to study hard and dream big.
“Growing
up in East Los Angeles, I know how important it is to keep a
positive attitude and to stay focused on your goals,” said De
La Hoya. “I’m so proud of these students. Every one of them
deserves a quality education and I’m honored to help them
realize their dreams! This is a landmark day for everyone
involved with Oscar De La Hoya Ánimo Charter High School and
I’m thrilled to be building a new school in my hometown.”
Green Dot has founded and is in the process of building Oscar
De La Hoya Ánimo Charter High School and sixteen other Green
Dot high schools, including several new schools representing
the re-structured Locke High School in Watts. Green Dot
schools offer quality education facilities to Los Angeles
communities faced with educational, social and economic
adversity. Last year, 92% of the seniors at Oscar De La Hoya
Ánimo graduated and 71% of those students were accepted to
four-year universities. Students from this year’s graduating
class are expected to go on to four-year universities
including: University of California Los Angeles, University of
California Davis, University of California Berkeley,
University of California Irvine and many others.
“Oscar De
La Hoya has been an amazing source of inspiration to Green Dot
since its inception,” added Steve Barr, founder and CEO of
Green Dot Public Schools. “With his generosity and goodwill,
so many gifted students have been granted the opportunity to
obtain a safe, quality education and a chance to succeed in
life. With De La Hoya’s current donation, we will be able to
continue to build schools that will ensure all kids receive a
quality education for years to come.”
The success of the Green Dot schools, whose students score on
average 113 points higher than Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD) high schools on the state of California’s
Academic Performance Index, is credited to the “Six Tenets”
school model. The “Six Tenets of High Performing Public
Schools” calls for schools to: 1) be safer and no larger than
500 students each; 2) implement a college preparatory
curriculum for all students; 3) empower principals, teachers,
parents and students to own all key decisions related to
budgets, curriculum and hiring; 4) add more dollars to
classrooms and significantly increase teacher pay; 5) value
and support parent participation; 6) stay open later for
community use.
By
implementing this model, Green Dot has produced incredible
results, helping students close the achievement gap, graduate
from high school and attend four-year colleges. Oscar De La
Hoya Ánimo is ranked among the top 10% of high schools in the
state of California that serve similar communities.
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About Green Dot Public Schools
Green Dot
Public Schools is the leading public school operator in Los
Angeles and is dedicated to changing public education in Los
Angeles so that all children receive the educations they need
to reach their dreams. It currently operates twelve public
charter high schools in Los Angeles’ highest-need communities.
Each Green Dot school (branded “Ánimo” schools) vastly
outperforms comparable traditional public high schools. For
more information visit: www.greendot.org
About The Oscar De La Hoya Foundation
In 1995 the
Oscar De La Hoya Foundation was created to bring a better
quality of life to the people of East Los Angeles. Today,
with the help of so many, the foundation serves thousands of
people annually. Offering the Oscar De La Hoya High School,
the Cecilia Gonzales De La Hoya Cancer Center and the Oscar De
La Hoya Children’s Medical Center, both located at the White
Memorial Hospital.
