ABOUT US

Public Works (PW) is a 501c(3) corporation founded in 1998 and headquartered in Pasadena. PW is dedicated to working with schools, government, parents, and communities by providing services and resources to educate and inform children, youth and families. Since it began, PW has established itself as a leading research firm in the areas of public education and school improvement, career technical and workforce development, and social services and support programs. PW works with many local, state and national clients to evaluate program implementation, ensure accountability, and use data to improve program delivery.

We see our role as researchers influencing policy—bridging policy and practice. 

As our work in the community deepened, we began to connect with the poorest, most disengaged youth in Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD)—dropouts. We tried to enroll them back in school but it was very difficult. The reasons for the difficulty were many—too far behind in credits, trying to re-enroll mid-semester, student work schedules, girls with babies and no child care, students “aged-out” at 18 years old, discipline records, and more. We started a dropout recovery program at our office that was administered by PUSD. In 2008, we realized the existing system just did not know how to re-engage, welcome or serve dropouts so we started Learning Works, a charter school where the dropout is the customer.

We see our role as advocates for the poor and disengaged with one goal—all youth deserve a high school diploma. 

 

As our work has evolved, PW identified a glaring need to help parents and students navigate the education system in our community. We observed a wide communication gap between schools and families, especially for children having difficulty in school. Many parents did not know how or what to advocate for their children in terms of improving their educational success. Community Works and the other programs it supports were started to apply what we had learned about schools to help parents and students. We provide tutoring, homework assistance, intervention, and enrichment classes for K-12 grade students.

We see our role as education coaches, tutors, and mentors. 

 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS & GOVERNANCE

Recent Board Meeting Agendas and Minutes

AGENDAS
6/28/22, 8/10/22 (special), 10/11/22, 1/19/23, 3/9/23 (special), 4/25/23, 6/13/23, 6/27/23, 9/26/23, 10/3/23 (special), 10/4/23 (special), 10/10/23 (special), 11/14/23 (special), 12/19/23, 2/14/24 (special), 2/20/24, 4/23/24, 6/18/24, 6/25/24, 9/10/24, 12/17/24

MINUTES 
6/28/22, 8/10/22 (special), 10/11/22, 1/19/23, 3/9/23 (special), 4/25/23, 6/13/23, 6/27/23, 9/26/23, 10/3/23 (special), 10/4/23 (special), 10/10/23 (special), 11/14/23 (special), 2/15/24 (special), 2/20/24, 4/23/24, 6/18/24, 6/25/24

Click here for the Local Control & Accountability Plan (LCAP) 2023-24 Update OVERVIEW and LCAP, approved by our Board on 6/27/23. Click for the Spanish version.

Learning Works 2024-27 LCAP & Dashboard Data
Proposition 28 Arts and Music in Schools Funding
Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant Expenditures

 

Click here for the ESSER III Expenditure Plan, approved by our Board on 10/12/21 (revised 1/14/22 per LACOE review).
Our Expanded Learning Opportunities Plan was approved on May 24, 2021.

Please contact us to view PDFs of archived agendas and minutes.

Click here to view the Learning Works School Accountability Report Card (SARC). It contains a good overview of the school’s demographics, mission, curriculum, organization and other information.

Please click the links below for information about our Uniform Complaint Procedures

 

 Our Board of Directors includes leaders from education, philanthropy, business, nonprofit and government sectors. The Board provides leadership for all aspects of the non-profit organization and oversight of the Learning Works Charter School. Board members offer a wide variety of skills and talents to the organization and contribute to helping us move forward in many different ways.

Dave Banis

Dave is a retired public school educator who is currently an Independent Education Management Consultant. Before retiring he held multiple leadership positions in a variety of school districts in capacities supported by his expertise in school finance, oversight and instruction.

 

Dominick Correy

Dominick is the District Representative for Senator Anthony Portantino, California Senate and originally joined Learning Works as one of our original Chasers.

Dr. Eddie Newman

Dr. Newman supported Learning Works Charter School when it first opened as its principal and previously served as the Director of High School Programs at PUSD. She serves on numerous boards for local agencies dedicated to education, counseling and mental health and in Leadership Pasadena.

Kathy Lesley

Kathy is a former public school teacher and administrator who retired as Assistant General Manager of School Achievement Services for America’s Choice, Inc. She has also served as Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Support Services in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Lauren O’Neill

Lauren is a progressive public school educator in the Pasadena area for the past 23 years and is currently Odyssey Charter School’s Executive Director over the past nine years having joined the school as one of the founding teachers.

Fabian Debora
Fabian has been the Executive Director of the Homeboy Art Academy since 2018, and his work has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US and internationally, including Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Brooklyn, and throughout Latin America. Fabian has also served as a counselor and the Director of Substance Abuse Services & Programming as well as a mentor at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles for more than a decade.
Nicole Jacquemin

Nicole is Engagement Manager at AT&T, where she is responsible for all aspects related to custom solutions for technology enablement, including sales, developing solutions, contracts, vendor management, project oversight, implementation, support and billing.

Michelle Bravo

Learning Works’ newest board member, Michelle Bravo, is one of a growing number of ex Chasers® to explore outside opportunities and return to the LW fold and benefit our student population. She currently works at ChapCare, a San Gabriel Valley health center founded in 1995 to establish primary healthcare services for the low-income, uninsured residents. At ChapCare, Michelle serves as a liaison between the doctors and nurses and their patients, triaging walk-in patients, and working with medical support staff regarding status of waiting patients.

OUR LEADERSHIP

Mikala L. Rahn, PhD, CEO and Founder

Dr. Mikala Rahn is the CEO and Founder of Public Works (PW) and has extensive experience in the areas of school improvement, curriculum and assessment, teacher professional development and support; juvenile justice, intervention and prevention programs; and workforce development. With both qualitative and quantitative methods, she collects, analyzes and reports findings to inform policy and practice. She has conducted many large-scale federal, state and local evaluations.

Dr. Rahn has always held strongly to the belief that education is a right that defines a person and shapes who they become. With that principle in mind, Dr. Rahn founded Learning Works Charter School in 2008. The school focuses on the needs of students the mainstream educational system does not address: dropouts, probation youth and pregnant and parenting teens. Using a core set of principles and unique tools developed by Dr. Rahn, Learning Works has succeeded in stemming the tide of dropouts like few others have. The school serves hundreds of the highest risk youth at both the Pasadena main campus and a resource center located at Homeboy Industries in Boyle Heights.

Dr. Rahn is also the founder of Community Works, which turns research into practice by supporting teachers, parents and students by providing training, classes and hands-on assistance. She is co-founder of artWORKS, which offers a space for youth to create using a variety of media that is available to them at no cost: screen printing, graphic design, print design, photography, studio recording, video editing, graffiti art, and recording, and other visual and performing arts. She started HopeWorks, a drop-in homeless support center for youth and young adults to take a shower, do laundry and get a meal.

Dr. Rahn has served on the Pasadena Unified School Board. She earned a PhD in educational policy, MA in political science and MA in education administration from the University of California Berkeley, and a BA in human development communications from University of California, San Diego. Contact Mikala: mikala@publicworksinc.org  Connect with Mikala on LinkedIn You can also view her first blogs about the launch of Public Works and Learning Works Charter School here:

 

Patricia O’Driscoll, MPA, Vice President of Research and Evaluation

Patricia O’Driscoll is Vice President for Research and Evaluation for Public Works. She is an experienced professional providing research, evaluation and technical assistance to support schools, non-profits and social service agencies in a wide range of policy areas. She has directed many evaluations throughout California at the statewide, county and local levels, which have encompassed large groups of schools and school districts, universities and other partners. With evaluation expertise in the areas of school improvement and integration of government and non-profit agencies across policy initiatives and improved systems alignment, she also has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including large-scale data collection efforts, survey design and administration, analysis of participant outcomes, and qualitative data collection and analysis including interviewing techniques, site visits and case study design.

Ms. O’Driscoll also supports Learning Works Charter School, started to fulfill the commitment of the Public Works non-profit to learn through the application of research into practice. Since 2008, Learning Works has been reconnecting high school dropouts to school by providing whatever it takes to keep working toward a high school diploma and employing innovative approaches to learning for those most disengaged from traditional public education. She supports this mission through analysis of program data, seeking outside funding to support student needs and by understanding the broader policy context in which we work and how that affects the organization’s effectiveness.

Ms. O’Driscoll has a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Washington’s Graduate School of Public Affairs and a Bachelors Degree from the University of California Santa Cruz. Contact Patricia: patty@publicworksinc.org  Connect with Patricia on LinkedIn

Complete curricula vitae are available upon request

OUR PROGRAMS IN THE NEWS!

Our team appreciates the media attention and praise for our evaluation and education services! The list below represents a portion of the coverage focused on our research and evaluation arm Public Works, and our school, Learning Works Charter School and Learning Works@Homeboy. For all media inquiries please contact Kurt Rahn, Communications Director.

READ ALL PAST PRESS STORIES HERE

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