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.”
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