Lutheran High Asks for Long-Term Lease of Closed La Canada School

Los Angeles Lutheran High School, which is losing its home in Burbank, has asked to lease a closed school from the La Canada Unified School District.

Lutheran High is interested in leasing the old Foothill Intermediate School, at 4490 Cornishon Ave. The school was closed in 1983 because of declining enrollment. The buildings are now occupied by 12 tenants on annual leases.

Lutheran High is looking for a new location because its site at 7500 N. Glenaoks Blvd. has been sold to Woodbury University. The high school has to move by July 15 but wants to have a new location before then, Principal Alfred R. Roth told La Canada school officials Tuesday night.

Not Making Demands

“We are very anxious to have a decision. We will have to make a decision in the next two months, but we realize we’re in no position to come in and make demands,” said the Rev. John Perling, chairman of the Lutheran High board of directors.

La Canada school officials said the proposal from Lutheran High would have to be studied.

Perling said he would like a lease of at least 10 years, with an option to continue. He said the high school has looked at about 30 other sites, but is most interested in the La Canada campus, despite some drawbacks.

“It’s hardly what you’d call centrally located but it has the facilities we need,” Perling said.

Current Tenants

The 465 students attending Lutheran High, which has seventh- to 12th-grade classes, come primarily from Van Nuys and Burbank, but also from as far as Santa Monica, Inglewood, Monrovia and Alhambra, Roth said.

Tenants at the La Canada campus now include Delphi Academy, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena City College, Verdugo Hills Hospital and La Canada Montessori School. Their leases are on a year-to-year basis and must be renewed each June.

If a long-term lease to Lutheran High is approved, the school will lease the entire 15-acre site.

However, La Canada Flintridge parks and recreation officials have expressed concern about such a lease, saying they want to make sure athletic fields on the property remain open for community activities.