Middle School Profile

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Key Contacts

 

Sharon Weir, Ed.D

Dr. Sharon Weir

Principal | Executive Director

 


Tanisha M. Barnett, Ed.D

Tanisha Barnett

Assistant Director

 


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Description / History

Parent-founded New West Charter School (NWC) is a free, independent, high-performing, public charter school that is authorized by the State Board of Education, supervised by the Charter Schools Division of the California Department of Education, and fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. NWC currently serves over 1,000 students in grades 6 – 12 in three programs at two campuses, and was named a California Distinguished School for a third time in the spring of 2019.

The development of NWC began in the year 2000 with a community effort to provide Los Angeles’ ethnically, culturally and socio-economically diverse families with a choice in public education. NWC first opened its doors as a 6 – 8 grade school in September 2003 at its Pico Boulevard campus in West Los Angeles, under its charter granted by the State Board of Education. In fall 2012, New West Charter moved to a larger building on Armacost Avenue to accommodate the addition of grades 9 – 12. The Pico campus was remodeled into a custom facility for grades 6 and 7 in 2018, which opened in winter 2019. That move opened up classrooms at Armacost to diversify course offerings, reduce class sizes, and improve services for students in grades 8 – 12. It also created space for an independent study based program called New West Personalized Learning School (NWC+) to meet the needs of an even more diverse student body. All three of New West’s programs – middle, high, and NWC+ – are committed to serving all students, maintaining the strength of the faculty, and finding ways to make the curriculum as challenging and individualized as possible.

 


Mission

The mission of New West Charter is to provide an academically-rigorous, highly-individualized education for 21st-century students in grades 6 – 12.

In decades to come, personal success will require increasingly high levels of competency, independence, and collaboration in an ever-changing, progressively complex society, whether individuals choose to manage their own businesses, work in public or private organizations, or raise families. In that context, New West produces extremely capable students by creating a learning environment that promotes academic excellence, strong character development, self-reliance, and the tools of productive engagement.

Our school fosters our students’ intellectual and emotional maturity, and simultaneously inspires and challenges each student to fulfill his or her individual potential as a personal lifelong objective and as contributing members of society.

 


Enrollment

2024: 431

 


Ethnic Composition

African American 7% | Asian 8% | Hispanic 31% | White 54%

 


Geographic Diversity

Students come from 70 different zip codes from all over Los Angeles County (72% of students live in zip codes within five miles of the campus).

 


Grading Policy

A: 100-90% | B: 89-80% | C: 79-70% | D: 69-60% | F: 60-0%

Transcript represents an un-weighted GPA. New West Charter does not rank its students.

 


School Schedule & Class Format

The school year commences the middle of August and ends the first week of June. It includes:

  • One-week Thanksgiving break
  • Two-week Winter Holiday break
  • One-week Spring break

Middle school classes meet 8:00 am – 3:00 pm with a 1:45 pm dismissal on Wednesdays. NWC sustains the goal of a small student body and reduced-sized classes.

For more detailed information, view our Academic Calendar and Bell Schedule.