Ernie Pyle Elementary School
14500 South Woodruff Ave.
Bellflower, CA 90706
562-804-6528

Sulema Alarcon, Principal

The facilities at Ernie Pyle Elementary School in the northeast section of Bellflower include 29 regular education classrooms, two special education classrooms, a multipurpose room (which also serves as the school cafeteria), a library, 2 computer labs, and a resource room.

Ernie Pyle serves 600 plus students. The attendance rate at the school was 96.07 percent during the prior school year. Student enrollment includes a variety of ethnic backgrounds: Asian 3 percent, Filipino 4 percent, Hispanic 59 percent, African-American 19 percent, and Caucasian 10 percent.

Students at Ernie Pyle are regularly made aware of how important an education is and how each one of our students is special in their own unique way.  Our teachers have high expectations and are continuously challenging students.  Students are also given opportunities beyond the classroom setting to experience the world of work through student council activities, cafeteria and office assistance, and cross-age and peer-tutoring responsibilities. Special programs at the school that provide additional support for student growth and achievement include School Improvement Program, Title 1, ELD instruction and Gifted and Talented Education. These funds support instructional aides, additional support staff and enrichment classes. The school provides students opportunities to participate in such activities as student council, student of the month, semester honor roll, and "Proud Panthers." An after school program called APPLE offers support with homework, enrichment activities, and adult supervision for 150 children every day until 6:00 p.m.

The school has 28 regular education teachers, three special education teachers, an assistant principal and an administrator. Other personnel serving the school include a psychologist, two health assistants, a guidance intern, a speech and language teacher, and a full time community service worker. All staff meet the credential requirements of the State of California. Seventy-five percent of the certificated staff have advanced degrees.

Staff development activities are essential for maintaining a quality education program for students; therefore, the district provides more than 300 hours of staff development activities for teachers and classified staff. The emphasis of the staff development program has been in the areas of language arts, mathematics, and cultural diversity. Teachers and support staff are encouraged to participate in outside staff development that will be beneficial to support academic success for our students.  Our own teacher leadership team also provides staff development for their colleagues.

Ernie Pyle encourages Parent Involvement throughout the academic year.  We know that students are more successful when parents are involved.  We have a parent volunteer center in which parents come at their leisure and work on assignments given by teachers.  Parents are also encouraged to volunteer in the classroom whenever possible.  We host monthly parent meeting to keep all our parent affront of what is happening at the school and also provide them with strategies to help at home.  Our Parent Teacher Association is very active and also provides support to our students in teachers.  We also have parents participate through School Site Council and our English Language Advisory Committee in helping to make school wide decisions which have the input of parents.