El Monte

The Mountain View Elementary School District has received state approval of a 19.5-acre site for a new junior high school at Gilman Road and Clora Place south of the San Bernardino Freeway in El Monte. Supt. Alfred S. Madrid said the campus will cost about $9 million and be ready in 1988.

Madrid ought to know. The new school will be called the Alfred S. Madrid Junior High School. Madrid, who has headed the district for 20 years, said having a school named after him is “a great honor.”

The school, which will accommodate about 800 students, is being planned to alleviate expected overcrowding at the district’s only junior high. District enrollment has reached nearly 8,000 and is increasing 5% annually, Madrid said. Each year, the district registers 500 more kindergartners than it graduates from eighth grade.