School Board OKs Limited Reopening of Schools

The Los Angeles school board voted unanimously Monday to reopen San Fernando Valley schools that it closed because of low enrollment if those schools can be used to reduce crowded conditions on other campuses.

“I consider this a victory,” said David Armor, whose West Valley district includes the 19 Valley schools closed by the board during the early 1980s. “I’ve always felt that we would need that classroom space someday.”

Armor said he does not expect any of the eight Valley campuses that are still empty to be reopened by September. But he predicted that the district will need to open at least one or two of the schools in 1987.

The Board of Education’s decision to use closed campuses to combat crowding came during debate on a 15-point plan to provide classroom space for an additional 82,000 students projected to enroll in Los Angeles Unified School District campuses during the next five years.

The board delayed until February a final vote on the most controversial part of that plan, conversion of all 618 district schools to a year-round schedule instead of the current nine-month, two-semester calender. By February, the district staff will have developed options for accommodating the fast-growing student population. One option is a phased-in conversion to a year-round calender.

When the issue of reopening schools was introduced, board President Rita Walters asked that the wording of the proposal be changed so that a school could not be reopened solely because the surrounding community wanted it reopened. Many parents have complained about the loss of their neighborhood schools.

“I don’t want to see us reopen any of these schools just because it is desirable for the school to be reopened,” Walters said.

Reopening Best Option

But Armor, along with East Valley representative Roberta Weintraub, argued that reopening some of the West Valley schools might be the most logical way to help alleviate crowded conditions at East Valley schools.

“Whenever a closed school can be used to alleviate crowding problems, it should be used,” Armor said.

Armor and Weintraub, who have both voiced skepticism about converting the district to a year-round schedule, disagreed on a motion to allow the district to return reconfigured schools to original grade groupings. The board approved the reshuffling.

Reconfiguration, as the district calls regrouping of grades, was begun in the fall of 1984 to increase sagging enrollments at seven West Valley high schools. Forty-nine West Valley schools were involved in the shuffle that sent ninth-graders to high school campuses and sixth-graders to junior highs.

Weintraub lost her bid to add a provision to protect the ninth-to-12th-grade high school grouping. She said reconfiguration and the creation of four-year high schools helped expand academic offerings and enticed many private-school students back to the public system.

But Armor argued that removing ninth-graders from high schools would provide 5,000 additional seats in those schools. Without such options, Armor told board members, “we’re backing my district into year-round schools next year.”