Altadena Lost #3
Recommended Only for People Who Live/Lived in Altadena
This is a reproduction of an article that originally appeared in Altadena Neighbors under the title “Altadena Eliot Arts Magnet, a One School, Two Campus Wonder” in the July 2023 issue.
My intent as part of this SubStack was always to broaden the number of neighbors who had a chance to read the stories printed in Altadena Neighbors over the not-quite 6 years of its existence (it may come back, we will see). At its peak, the magazine which was not available online and to which you could not subscribe (I am not making this up) reached only 30% or so of residents. I am perfectly happy for anyone to read this article; I am simply responding to subscribers who indicate they are not interested in the Altadena-before-the-fire stories. You are duly warned. The following is roughly 1200 words.
If you are like me, you have always been annoyed by the aphorism “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Firstly, and trivially, almost every one of these pieces of folk wisdom can be matched with an aphorism or saying positing exactly the opposite. This from Amor Towles (author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Lincoln Highway): “what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli.” Secondly, more importantly, it ignores a basic tenet of human thinking which I strive to keep uppermost in my mind. “We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision” (from Daniel Kahneman, Psychologist and Nobel Prize winner in Economics).
Okay, I admit it is a leap from the above paragraph to interviewing Dr. Benita Scheckel, Executive Principal of the PreK-8 span school Altadena and Eliot Arts Magnet (PreK-8) which is the one school, two-campus combination of the former Altadena Arts Magnet School (K-5) and Eliot Middle School (6-8), but that’s what I was thinking when we had the chance to sit down and chat last month.
In round numbers, one-half of students living in the attendance zones of Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre go to public (PUSD) school, and one-half to charter and private schools. “A challenge for me,” said Dr. Scheckel, “is to even get the parents new to Altadena, or the parents of the children presently in private or charter schools, to come and talk to me about what is available in our public school.” Therefore, for those of you who formed a first impression about PUSD from the busing/desegregation societal crisis of 1970, or from talking to others whose view of PUSD froze at that point when La Canada broke off from PUSD, let me bring you up to date and into the new millennium.
There is exciting and good stuff going on at Altadena and Eliot Arts Magnet in 2023. What’s more, the outlook is sunny indeed as the school is the recipient of a multi-million-dollar magnet school assistance grant to create the new arts conservatory which is presently underway at Eliot. In addition, the school is led by an extraordinary musical artist, award-winning administrator and educational visionary, Dr. Benita Scheckel. The cherry on top is that all PUSD schools are free.
Dr. Scheckel became principal at the former Altadena Elementary School (now Altadena Arts Magnet) in 2017. Her background included teaching at LA County High School for the Arts, at Blair IB, at McKinley K-8, and as Assistant Principal of Marshall Fundamental Secondary School. She was coordinator of the International Baccalaureate middle years program at Blair and part of the team that brought Blair its Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program (DLIP). At Altadena Arts, Dr. Scheckel led the opening of the elementary French DLIP with an arts magnet program in furtherance of her faith that the learning-performing paradigm brings stellar results. The first graduates of the French DLIP are now attending Eliot Arts in sixth grade, so the articulation between the two campuses afford students the opportunity to continue in this innovative educational approach. “All children, given the proper supports, can and will succeed,” affirms Dr. Scheckel. Her job as administrator, she explained, is to motivate and arm the faculty with all the tools they need to create the proper educational structure and environment. One that fosters a love of learning and the arts, fun, and achievement for each and every child in their care.
As a former touring opera singer and regional musical theater performer, actor and playwright, Benita has the chops to excite the students about the performing arts. “Students find community, learn collaboration skills, and perform in front of an audience. It’s the original project-based learning.”
Dr. Scheckel has more than just opinion on her side about the synergy between learning and performing. Her mid-life doctoral dissertation examined the impact on long-term English language learners (LTELL) of substituting a choir class for the normally mandated English Language Development (ELD) class but with instruction from both ELD and music teachers. Compared with a control group, the students that participated in the choir-English class showed dramatic improvement in their overall scores and oral score in the mandatory testing called English Language Proficiency Assessment of California. Students exceeded the outcomes in a statistically significant fashion compared with the control group of LTELLs who were traditionally taught (it was not even close). As an important aside to we lucky users of the Altadena Libraries District, I was able to download Dr. Scheckel’s doctoral thesis for Azusa Pacific University on my cell phone while I was waiting to interview her. Entitled Language Through Music: Bridging the Opportunity Gap in the American ELD Classroom, I read through the summary and analysis sections before speaking with her. Unlike many doctoral dissertations in my experience, this one is written in plain comprehensible language and has interesting insights on many levels. Readers, you should check it out.
The Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) honored Benita Scheckel with its Principal of the Year Administrator of the Year award in 2021 for this section of the State. The week after we spoke, Dr. Scheckel was the host of a Leadership Symposium run by the ACSA. You can spot the people who love what they do because they are always going the extra mile and don’t even seem to notice it or try to slough it off as routine. “I hope to double the enrollment at Eliot over the next couple of years,” Dr. Scheckel said, casually dropping this statement into our conversation at one point. You have to pay attention when this lady speaks!
My purpose in the first paragraph of this article was two-fold. The first was to address head-on the remarkable resilience of negative impressions even when they are of dubious quality, dated, and failing to serve the community. Come on, Altadena! Let’s take some pride in what has been accomplished at our public schools and let’s talk up the positive. The second purpose was purely ironic, because everything about Benita Scheckel is charming, engaging, and consistent with a trained and experienced actor, musical performer, and educator. She makes a marvelous first impression. She laughs, she smiles, you get sucked up into her energy vortex and think to yourself “we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
It is not only the first impression that matters. Setting stretch goals, engaging students, staff, faculty, parents, community, and achieving remarkable results - these are all critical elements. I find myself agreeing with Wendy Silva, Eliot parent and Annual Fund Chair when she says, “I have fallen in love with this school.” So, for all you parents who have not given PUSD a fair chance, make an appointment to meet with Dr. Scheckel. We should not be a town of slow learners. See what’s going on, feel the excitement, make your decision based upon actual knowledge and not recycled impressions of two generations ago. You will be glad you did, and Altadena will be better for it.
