5th-Graders Still Waiting for Classrooms After 5 Months

Frustration is the word parents, teachers and administrators use to describe the classroom situation at Dearborn Street Elementary School in Northridge.

Because of overenrollment at the school, two fifth-grade classes--about 50 students--were housed in the school auditorium during the fall semester.

Although it was not the best of circumstances, parents said they understood that the makeshift classrooms were just part of the burden schools have to shoulder as the district attempts to cope with its fast-growing student population.

Besides, the district promised that the campus would get two portable classrooms--among the 208 approved by the Los Angeles Board of Education last February to help alleviate crowding on many campuses.

But the Dearborn portable classrooms did not arrive until mid-December, when students had left for vacation. And when the fifth-graders and their teachers returned from their break, they were guided back to their desks in the auditorium--their new classrooms were not ready.

The problem was a backlog of installation orders for the portable structures, district officials said.

“It’s absolutely maddening to see those classrooms on the playground and know your child has to attend class in the school auditorium,” said Jean Hancock, a parent of a fifth-grader.

Spring Semester Opening

Dearborn Principal Elsa Stewart agreed that it’s disappointing not to have the rooms ready in January, but that the district officials assured her that the classroom should be ready for the spring semester.

“The spring semester starts on Feb. 2,” Stewart said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Mel Ross, deputy director of the district’s building and facility services division, acknowledged that installation of the portable classrooms “has taken more time than we would have liked.” He cited weather and “logistical problems” as reasons for the delays.

An official of Modulaire Industries, the City of Industry-based firm responsible for the Dearborn project and installation of 106 other portable classrooms, declined to comment on the construction schedule.

Ross said a Modulaire crew will move on to Dearborn when it completes installation of portable classrooms at Granada Hills High School.

“The portable classrooms come in two pieces,” Ross said. “The Modulaire crew comes in, bolts the two parts together and then places the portable on a temporary foundation.

“District maintainence crews then come in and hook up the electrical and the plumbing. If everything goes right, it should only take two or three days.”

Dearborn has a capacity of 464 students, according to district records. About 500 students are now enrolled on the 7.1-acre Northridge campus.

Just a few years ago, Dearborn was considered a “low-enrollment” school. But that all changed when students transferred to Dearborn from Prairie Street and Parthenia Street elementary schools, both of which were closed because of dwindling enrollment.

Dearborn also receives a handful of students from crowded East San Fernando Valley schools.