Confusion is understandable. The muscular Star Eco Station and the tiny Star Prep were thought up by the same family. They seem to expound parallel philosophies. They are enough alike, and sufficiently different from more traditional educational centers to blur the differences to residents passing by.
Living Together
With a common entrance — you need to be buzzed in — they share the same busy,little noted single-story building in the industrial bosom of Jefferson Boulevard.
To the casual Culver City observer, they are mistaken for identical twins even though they are no more alike than the Portland in Maine and the Portland in Oregon. With ferocity and conviction, their backers will tell you each is an independent enterprise. Some objectives are similar, but most are not.
Identifying Differences
The Star Eco Station is a small-animals enclave, a live museum that serves as a monument to environmental education. It is a popular destination for hundreds of schoolchildren. The Star Prep Academy, a 44-student, still-like-new private school, first came to attention in Culver City last summer in an unfortunate way. Thefrontpageonline.com reported a year-long dispute with City Hall over fulfilling fundamental requirements for doing business in any municipality. School officials said this morning they are well on the way to resolving the publicly damaging rift by handily meeting the first two deadlines for providing mandatory documents. An ongoing threshold for ultimately fulfilling all requirements was established in December by a patient, sympathetic by the City Council.
Communal Acceptance
In the manner of a newborn colt, the Star Prep Academy is struggling mightily to find its legs, to stand alone and upright as an innovative educational institution worthy of the community’s unstinting support. Star Prep’s path has been strewn with rocks, some of its own making, some definitely not.
Educator for Hire
Just before Star Prep’s regulatory problems became public last August, the much-admired matriarch of the founding family, Katya Bozzi, made probably her smartest move since she began accepting students on a more-or-less formal basis about 4 years ago. Dipping into LAUSD, where all kinds of academic talents are swimming through those shark-drenched waters, Ms. Bozzi reeled in the gem of her career.
Having His Cake and Licking It
Tim Benson, who turned 32 years old so recently the icing on his cake still is lickable, is a fireball who doubles as the new principal. Judging even by a snapshot, his nimble, fully-stocked mind is subdivided into more compartments than a condo complex 80 stories high. Chosen to upgrade Star Prep first to regional credibility, then to wider prominence, the Westchester native appears to be a remarkably flawless fit.
What the Council Doctor Ordered
Except for his brief chin beard, the principal face of Star Prep could pass for one of the older students. Mr. Benson may be exactly what the City Council has been saying Star Prep needed, a bristlingly professional educator, toes to top.
Science and What?
When he isn’t administrating, he is teaching. At this point, Mr. Benson’s adroit mind may require a traffic cop to keep his scholarly threads from becoming entangled. It is possible he commands the most unusual two-subject agenda in Los Angeles schools — earth sciences and poetry.
Luck or Design — Does It Matter?
Knowingly or luckily, what Ms. Bozzi hired was a savvy, take-charge/don’t-retreat, balanced and bright leader who is confidently holding the reins, not too loose, not too strained. Young enough to be open to a flood of academically bold ideas, he is sure enough of his control to know when to flip the spigot off. Star Prep searched and found a square-shouldered leader who can give inspiration, rationality and stern direction to the huge, somewhat murky, web of moving parts within the bigger-than-you-think Star education network.
When the Water Is Too Deep
As irresistibly passionate as Mr. Benson presents to visitors, it is nearly impossible to believe that merely 7 months ago, he was languishing in administrative obscurity. The dominant sound from his LAUSD desk every day was of a man gurgling in the unfathomable depths of modern-day, public-school paperwork.
Lost and Then Found
Near the end of a tour this morning of the Star Prep’s imaginative campus, one of his favorite chores, Mr. Benson talked about changes that a half-year at Star Prep have wrought in him.
“I have refound my passion for education,” he said. “When I was an administrator with LAUSD, I started to doubt if that’s what I really wanted to do because I now w as taken away from children. I was taken away from teaching. I was doing paperwork. Leadership is something I am very passionate about. But I am passionate about children, first and foremost. This is one reason I came here. I felt like I could have it again. I love my job again.”
(To be continued)
