Our school is named after Bert Corona, a Latino activist who ded­i­cated his life to achiev­ing social and eco­nomic jus­tice for under­served immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties in Los Ange­les and across the nation. Born to immi­grant par­ents in the bor­der town of El Paso in 1918 and inspired by his father’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Mex­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion, Corona ded­i­cated his life to fight­ing eco­nomic and social injus­tice. His untir­ing activism, based on coalition-building and com­mu­nity mobi­liza­tion, spans much of the twen­ti­eth century.

Bert Corona worked along­side Cesar Chavez and the UFW orga­niz­ing farm work­ers and in the polit­i­cal sphere, he served as co-chair for both Lyn­don Johnson’s and Bobby Kennedy’s pres­i­den­tial cam­paigns in Cal­i­for­nia. Bert Corona’s expe­ri­ences are his­tor­i­cal, inspi­ra­tional, and polit­i­cal in nature. Bert Corona is cred­ited, along with Cesar Chavez and oth­ers, for found­ing the mod­ern Chi­cano movement.

Bert Corona Char­ter Mid­dle School will equip low-income stu­dents in grades 6–8 for aca­d­e­mic suc­cess and active com­mu­nity par­tic­i­pa­tion. The school is located in the Heart of the San Fer­nando Val­ley, Pacoima, an area fraught with poverty and aca­d­e­m­i­cally strug­gling stu­dents. Bert Corona Char­ter Mid­dle School seeks to close the achieve­ment gap for these stu­dents by pro­vid­ing clear and high expec­ta­tions for all stu­dents, a per­son­al­ized and sup­port­ive learn­ing envi­ron­ment that rec­og­nizes stu­dents’ accom­plish­ments, family-school-community part­ner­ships and ser­vice, and cul­tur­ally enriched curriculum.