Our School's History » Our School's History

Our School's History

Vermont 1964Built in 1896, Vermont Avenue Elementary School is today a traditional calendar school, located in South Los Angeles, in Education Services Central. Our school is located within walking distance of the University of Southern California, California Science Center and the museums at Exposition Park.

Our Community is comprised of a majority of lower social-economic working class families. It is also representative of a diverse ethnic population. The student body is comprised of 438 students in grades ETK through fifth grade. Vermont’s ethnic population includes 92.01% Hispanic, 5.02% African American, 1.83% White, and 0.58% Asian. Of these students 46.58% are English Language Learners (ELL). 100% of our students receive free or reduced price meals. The average class size in grades Kindergarten through second is 24-1 and 30-1 in grades four through five student to teacher ratio.

The school calendar consist of 180 days of student attendance and is reflective of 319 daily instructional minutes and includes district mandated professional development, banked days, and shortened and minimum days.

We receive students from our own ETK program, USC preschool. Our feeder middle schools are Foshay Middle school and some students attend John Adams Middle school.

Culturally relevant and responsive teaching strategies are utilized to address the needs of all students. Special emphasis is give to the needs or our socio-economically disadvantaged students including our English Language and Standard English Learners.

There are three classes that serve the special needs students at Vermont. There is a primary class for students with specific learning disabilities, a moderate to severe Autism class, and a PAL class for preschool students with special needs. The Resource Specialist Teacher (RSP) also serves the needs of the students with specific learning disability in reading and mathematics.

Our current GATE (Gifted and Talented) program emphasizes the use of hands-on inquiry science. Inquiry science provides our GATE students with opportunities to develop analytical and critical thinking skills, enriches classroom learning, and encourages a multi-level, multi-dimensional approach to the scientific process.

As one of the USC Family of Five Schools, Vermont’s students are provided a number of enrichment opportunities for learning and extended learning. USC Dental Health, Kid Watch, and Social Work Intern programs provide a wealth of expertise in their given fields.

USC students in the Joint Educational Project (JEP) and USC Readers Plus provide the children with after-school tutoring, sporting events, individual mentoring, and a variety of enrichment activities.

Vermont Ave School offers various intervention and extended day programs during the school year.

  • Youth Services (Beyond the Bell)
  • Y.D.P. (Youth Development Program)
  • Ready, Set, Go! (Morning Beyond the Bell)
  • After School Tutoring (Language Arts and Mathematics)
  • English Language Development Intervention Program
  • USC Readers After School Programs
  • SMASH afterschool tutoring

The ETK program operates on a full day schedule to provided instruction that focuses on developing rich oral language, and learning experiences that prepare young children for formal classroom instruction.

As a proud recipient of the Wonder of Reading Library, Vermont students are allowed to participate in whole class, small group, or individual research-based activities. The state of the art facility provides and enriched experience for all students, parents, and teachers.

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