Las Virgenes School Board Approves Expansion

The Las Virgenes Unified School District will get its first permanent home, and Indian Hills High School will get a new building under a plan approved by the district’s board, Supt. Albert Marley said Friday.

The district board authorized purchase of three acres next to A. E. Wright Middle School on Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas, Marley said.

The land, to be purchased from the Currey Riach Co. for not more than $500,000, will give the district ownership of 21 contiguous acres on the site, Marley said.

District officials have been negotiating about a year to purchase the land, he said.

Firm Chosen to Develop Plan

The district voted Tuesday night to hire the Rancho Cucamonga architectural firm of Wolff, Lang & Christopher to develop a master plan for the site.

The plan will cover construction of the first permanent district headquarters since its formation in 1961, allowing the district to centralize operations, now scattered among a rented office in Westlake Village and four classrooms at the Calabasas middle school.

The plan also solves the problem of where to put Indian Hills High School, a continuation school with about 100 students, including ones who have work schedules conflicting with regular high schools, high rates of absenteeism and learning problems.

The continuation school is now in cramped quarters on a one-acre site in Calabasas, leased year-to-year from the Southern California Edison Co. But the power company wants to use the land for other purposes, Marley said.

Enrollment Rising

The plan also calls for renovation and possible expansion of A. E. Wright Middle School, officials said.

Enrollment in the district, which has seven elementary, two middle and three high schools, has been growing at the rate of about 5% annually for several years.

Total enrollment is 8,269, up from 7,400 in the mid-1970s.

The cost of the construction program is estimated at $5 million to $8 million. Officials hope the entire cost can be covered from assessments on developers and money from a state school construction program.