Parents protest firing of Shalimar staffer

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Chanting “We want Maria!” dozens of children and parents

invaded the hallways at the Shalimar Learning Center on Thursday.

They banged on the windows and doors, demanding an explanation for

Tuesday’s firing of Maria Alvarez, a staff member at the center since it

opened six years ago.

“Ever since the learning center started, Maria has been here

supporting the kids,” said Jovita Arroyo, a Costa Mesa resident. “She has

put in a lot of sweat helping them. Why was she let go? It’s not fair.

There had better be a good reason.”

Some were unhappy with the answers they got.

Alvarez was fired because of a “deep difference of opinion” between

Alvarez and other staff members, said Randy Barth, volunteer chairman of

Think Together, the organization that oversees six learning centers,

including Shalimar.

“We started the center together, but Maria now has a different vision

for the center than I do,” Barth said. “She said she’d do it our way, but

then she didn’t follow through. She just doesn’t want to play by the

rules. I love Maria and have a profound respect for her and what she’s

done for this community. But we have worked for three years to reconcile

our differences and they just can’t be reconciled.”

The learning center has been able to rent only three apartments to

house its program, which serves about 300 children, he said, limiting the

number of children center volunteers can tutor at the same time.

The program had established “teams” of students that were scheduled to

come to the center at different times, but Alvarez didn’t follow the new

schedules, Barth said.

“She has a mother’s heart and she wants to provide a place for the

kids to come any time they want,” he said. “That caused chaos. She wants

it to be a hangout center and we want it to be an academic center. You

just can’t teach anything when you have 75 kids in one apartment.”

Alvarez said she doesn’t agree with the scheduling, but never said she

wouldn’t go along with it.

She admits she never turned children away if they needed academic

help, however.

“These kids need help,” Alvarez said. “I’m a mother and grandmother,

and these kids are like my children and grandchildren. Their problems,

especially concerning language development, are problems for the whole

community and I wanted to do what I could.”

Alvarez said she thinks she was fired because other staff members just

don’t like her.

Several parents protesting the decision shouted that they think the

real reasons were racism and jealousy, adding that Alvarez has won the

community’s trust in a way that the “newcomer” staff members haven’t.

“They wouldn’t speak any English if it wasn’t for her,” said Maria

Corona, parent of Laura, 7, and Christian, 5. “Nobody else has done so

much for our kids.”

Corona said she had hoped her 1-year-old daughter, Viridiana, would be

able to learn from Alvarez as well.

Nancy Rodriguez, 9, said the children feel the same way as the

parents.

“She has taken such good care of us,” she said. “Now it’s time for us

to take care of her. All of us love her.”