L.A. Unified Shows Off New Campuses

The school year began Tuesday for about 415,000 Los Angeles-area students, thousands of whom will benefit from the opening of 13 schools.

To mark the day, officials showcased three new schools and two controversial construction sites as well as some academic reforms. The highlights included a school that returns young children to their neighborhood, a high school within a trade school, and a bridge over a busy street that leads to a pool fit for Olympians.

The bus tour was overshadowed by a battle for control of the nation’s second-largest school system; many reporters’ questions focused on that dispute rather than the new schools.

But the theme of the day was to herald a new and improved Los Angeles Unified, and state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell was entirely on message.

“Clearly, the Los Angeles Unified School District is on a roll,” he said.

He talked of test scores that have been rising faster than scores statewide and a $19.3-billion school construction effort he called “unprecedented in the history of the United States.”

Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer spoke similarly, saying the new schools would have the same effect on Los Angeles as William Mulholland’s aqueduct or the arrival of the railroad.

Thirteen schools would make up an entire small district in many states; L.A. Unified is 63 schools and six years into a building boom of 160 campuses planned over 12 years. The school system operates more than 800 campuses.

The first stop on the tour was Wilshire Park Elementary, a 3-acre, two-story campus for 450 students that relieved crowding at two nearby schools.

As in many other new schools, a multilevel design saves space, and the play area includes grass -- the district says it will add 800 acres of green space to the city through its new schools.

The school is an example not only of elevated design but also of rising costs. A few years ago planners talked of elementary schools priced in the $4-million range. Wilshire Park’s $37 million in project expenses works out to more than $82,000 per seat. Construction costs over the last three years have gone up at a rate of 2.5% a month, said Guy Mehula, who oversees district construction. Critics, however, accuse the district of wasting money.

All told, new schools and school buildings in the Koreatown area have helped take more than 3,000 children off the bus, returning them to neighborhood schools.

The next stop was the Santee Academy of Construction & Industrial Technology, south of downtown. It’s been built into an existing four-story adult vocational school, the Abram Friedman Occupation Center. The idea is to offer students a full college-prep curriculum while also making vocational training available in such crafts as plumbing, carpentry, tiling and air conditioning service and installation. The new school also accomplishes other goals: relieving crowding at Santee High School and creating a small high school environment. Small schools are widely touted by school-reform advocates as a way to improve academic achievement and reduce dropout rates.

The most striking feature of this $9.6-million school within a school is likely to be its rooftop athletic facility, still just a blueprint. For this year, the school accepted only 11th and 12th graders, who have already completed their physical education requirement.

The tour also stopped at the new Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, which is built for about 1,800 students and resembles a high-end office park. The cafeteria features a soaring wood-beam ceiling that extends above an outdoor patio. The $160-million campus includes a shaded bridge over 3rd Street to a 13-acre athletic complex that will serve multiple schools. The facilities include tennis and basketball courts, two gyms, a football stadium, a track and an Olympic-sized pool.

“Our children deserve this,” said Del L. Huff, a senior deputy for county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

En route, the tour bus drove by the old Belmont High, which is getting $20 million in renovations but remains burdened with more than 5,000 students until more new schools open. At several points on the tour, Romer noted that having adequate space was essential for the academic program.

One possible dissident on the tour was Monica Garcia, the school board member who has allied herself with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in his bid to gain substantial authority over the city’s schools. But on Tuesday she too was on message, describing one site after another as “fabulous.”

But didn’t the mayor call this a “failing” school system?

“We can have a conversation over what failing means,” Garcia said. The success of the building program, she added, needs to be translated to efforts across the school district.

Another jumping off point was the construction site of the $208-million performing arts high school. The school’s approval was contentious because it had higher design costs than a standard campus.

And Romer made sure to include the problem-plagued Belmont Learning Complex site. Notorious as the nation’s most expensive -- and unfinished -- high school, the complex is scheduled to open for the 2008 school year. On Tuesday, workers were installing a system to deal with methane and hydrogen sulfide fumes that could rise from the site, an old oil field. “The story here,” Romer said, “is that we’re going to turn a lemon into lemonade.”

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howard.blume@latimes.com