First Steps : Money for Reopening 3 Schools OKd

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to allocate $686,000 for preliminary work to reopen three empty San Fernando Valley schools.

The money will be used to clean up grounds, repair buildings and purchase furniture and equipment, according to Sally Coughlin, an assistant superintendent who oversees the district’s program to ease crowding in the schools.

The funds are part of a $15.8-million package aimed at creating additional classroom space.

The schools’ reopenings were approved last February as a way to provide space in the fast-growing Los Angeles Unified School District and to delay placing the entire district on a year-round class schedule.

Although the board did not indicate what schools would be reopened, the plan approved last February specified two Valley elementary schools and a Valley junior high--apparently Hughes in Woodland Hills. The schools would reopen in September, 1987.

Most Likely Schools

The most likely elementary schools would be Parthenia Street Elementary in Sepulveda and Prairie Street Elementary in Northridge, according to a 1985 report on closed campuses.

Justification for reopening the two elementary schools was based on increased enrollments at nearby schools, where crowding is expected to be eased by the reopenings.

If Hughes were reopened, district officials estimate, the Woodland Hills school would hold 1,200 to 1,500 students, depending on the number of portable classrooms added to the campus.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the district closed 19 Valley campuses because of low enrollments. Eight of those schools are still empty, and 10 have either been leased to private schools or are being used by the school district. One campus was sold.

Also in the package approved by the board Monday was $3.7 million for special programs for predominantly white schools in the West Valley and the Westside that will receive large numbers of minority students from crowded Eastside and Central City schools.

The money will go for a variety of programs, such as attracting bilingual teachers and training existing staff in the languages of students who are bused in.

The $15.8-million package also includes $500,000 for converting unused specialty classrooms--such as wood and electric shops--for academic purposes.