Alliance for College-Ready
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New Schools, New Leadership
New principals have been selected for the three new College-Ready Schools that will be open on September 5th . We’d like you to meet them.
Principals Ena Lavan, Dr. Derrick Chau and Emilio PackEna Lavan, Principal of CRAHS #6
The new Alliance high school will offer the same tough college prep courses, will be located on the familiar College-Ready campus on Martin Luther King Blvd, and will have the same atmosphere of high expectations for students who will get close personal attention. There will be one thing different about this, the fourth high school in the Alliance network. It will offer French as the required foreign language! That is the stamp of its new principal Ena Lavan.
“I want to broaden the world for our students. Our kids are often limited by their neighborhoods and a few miles of Los Angeles around them,” explains Ms. Lavan. “We want them to ask what else is out there and then go find it. Learning French is one way to do that.” She smiles because she is speaking from personal experience. Ms. Lavan is a native Angeleno who went to LAUSD schools, graduated from UCLA, and got a Masters degree at Pepperdine. “I wanted to see the world before I settled down. So I became a model and worked in Europe and across the U.S.,” she explains.
When she wanted a more meaningful career, she chose teaching. The Junior Statesmen of America Program at Yale University pointed the way. Ms. Lavan was a student and then a counselor in the summer school that taught law, debate, and public speaking to high school students. Her family provided inspiration, too. Her mother was a teacher as were seven of her eight aunts. Ms. Lavan began teaching at Foshay Middle School in 1996 and came to College-Ready Academy High School #1 as Assistant Principal in 2004. Off campus, spending time with her family – she has two daughters – and traveling are her favorite activities.
Emilio Pack, Principal of CRAHS #4
When the fifth Alliance high school opens in September, its principal Emilio Pack will begin to fulfill one of his lifetime goals. “I have always wanted to build a school from scratch. Now I have that opportunity,” he says as he finishes up work at Huntington Park College-Ready Academy High School where he has served as Assistant Principal. He’s also been busy and productive for his new school. The first class of ninth graders is filling up. The faculty – all fully credentialed teachers - has been hired. The rigorous college prep curriculum awaits the students.
Mr. Pack’s career path to CRAHS #4 has been focused on school-aged children. After getting a BA from Loyola Marymount, he earned a Masters degree in Psychology and became a licensed social worker. He worked as a child abuse investigator for the County of Los Angeles and then moved into school counseling. Soon he became an assistant principal in the Inglewood Unified School District, then on to be principal for the continuation and independent studies schools in Culver City School District.
“That’s how I was drawn to the Alliance,” Mr. Pack recalls. “I saw the value of small schools and individualized attention in those specialized schools. Add academic rigor and high expectations to such personalized instruction and students succeed. That’s the Alliance formula.
He’s excited about the new school. “The teachers really want to be here. Parents are excited. This is the most fun I’ve ever had professionally,” he declares. In his free time, Mr. Pack goes to the beach. He loves sports and fitness. He and his wife can be seen running on the sand with their bulldog Wayne.
Dr. Derrick Chau, Principal of Math and Science School
As a pre-med student at Harvey Mudd College, Derrick Chau worked in emergency rooms during the summer. It was there that he decided to become a teacher. “I realized that education was more powerful in affecting people’s lives,” he recalls. So after graduation, he joined Teach For America and spent two years as a chemistry teacher at a large high school in Long Beach. The experience was provocative. “Large impersonal schools don’t work. Why do things have to be like that?” he questioned, and began graduate study at USC where he earned a PhD. in Education Policy. He studied charter schools extensively, which led to a position with The Rand Corporation devising and evaluating charter school policy. But Dr. Chau missed being in the classroom with students. He applied for a position teaching chemistry at College-Ready Academy High School. Howard Lappin hired him in 2004. “I know a lot about charters. I went in with my eyes open,” Dr. Chau explains. “Charters require a lot of work for teachers; but it all helps students.” He’s excited about his new job as principal and predicts that the Alliance’s Math and Science School at Cal State University, Los Angeles will offer countless opportunities to students who love the sciences. “MASS will use the campus facilities, science labs, and have access to the science professors at the University.”
