Board Backs Plan for Privately Built Magnet High School

The Los Angeles school board on Monday unanimously endorsed a proposal to build a privately financed, $25-million high school in East Los Angeles that would offer up to 2,000 students specialized instruction in health sciences.

The proposed school would be called the Lincoln Medical Magnet High School and would replace a smaller medical and health professions program serving 250 students currently housed in temporary bungalows near Lincoln High School in East Los Angeles.

Board members were attracted to the proposal primarily because of an offer by National Medical Enterprises, a Los Angeles-based health services corporation, to build the school--completing construction within two years--and then lease it to the school district.

Strong Demand

The school district has not built a new high school since 1972, when Kennedy High School in Granada Hills opened. According to district figures, however, the district is short about 6,500 high school seats this year and will need an additional 5,500 seats in five years.

The demand for high school space will be strongest in the northeastern, eastern and southeastern regions of the district, which are close to the proposed medical campus.

“This vote goes to show the district’s commitment to providing that badly needed classroom space,” said East Los Angeles board member Larry Gonzalez, who hailed the unusual joint-venture arrangement.

The plan calls for building a five-story structure containing 30 classrooms, 10 specially equipped laboratories, a gymnasium, a library and other offices.

Bypass Steps

According to Gonzalez, it normally takes the district five to seven years to plan and build a school. However, National Medical Enterprises, which owns, operates or manages 444 hospitals across the country, has promised to finish construction within two years. Because the project would be privately financed, the district could bypass the time-consuming steps it ordinarily would need to take to apply for state construction funds.

Under the plan developed by National Medical Enterprises, the health services company would construct the high school through a subsidiary, Stolte Inc., and lease the building to the district.

According to the plan, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets would sell bonds to, in effect, lend the district the $25 million needed to finance the project. The district could pay about $3 million a year for 20 years or $2.4 million a year for 32 years and would own the school at the end of the payment period.

According to district controller Robert Booker, the state might agree to reimburse the district for 80% of the annual cost if the school can be shown to meet the requirements of a voluntary integration program. As a magnet school, the specialized high school would draw students from all parts of the district, giving preference to minorities or students from overcrowded campuses.

If the state does not agree to the reimbursement, the entire payment would be taken out of the district’s general funds, Booker said.

School officials said they may need special legislation allowing them to use a building that has been constructed privately, outside the normal competitive bidding process used for public buildings.

A Stolte official said the company hoped to have construction plans worked out in detail for presentation to the school district by the end of the summer. If all goes smoothly, construction could start before the end of the year, he said.

Two students graduating from the Lincoln High School medical magnet program this month told the board that the new campus is sorely needed, because it would offer a comprehensive curriculum under one roof. Lincoln magnet students currently must travel a mile by shuttle bus to attend elective and physical education classes on the main Lincoln High campus. The “dreaded shuttle buses” are often late and cause students to miss parts of classes, said senior Joon Lee, who intends to study biochemistry at Harvard University in the fall.

National Medical’s project manager for the proposed school, Jerry Bosworth, said the company’s principal reason for backing the project is to “enhance opportunities” for students interested in medical or health professions.

Separately, the company is discussing with the school district the possibility of purchasing a 3.8-acre parcel of district land near County-USC Medical Center to complete a site for a new private hospital it wants to build in conjunction with USC. National Medical officials said there was no connection between the two projects.

Board member Jackie Goldberg, who represents Hollywood, the central city and northeastern Los Angeles, said that she initially had reservations about the high school project, because of fears that National Medical’s proposed hospital would drain County-USC of its best doctors. After discussions with officials of USC and the county health department, however, she said she believes that the new hospital will not detract from the services there.

The district runs 25 magnet high school programs, so called because they focus on special subject areas, such as math or performing arts, and draw students from all parts of the district.