Pact Delays Catholic School Demolition

A compromise agreement to postpone demolition of Bishop Conaty Memorial High School for at least a year was announced Tuesday after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to give opponents 60 days’ notice if a final decision is made to tear down the mid-city campus.

The notice would allow supporters of the girls school, founded in 1923, to seek a designation declaring the campus a historic cultural monument.

Such a designation would not necessarily save the school, but it would include the Los Angeles City Council and the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission in any decision to tear the structures down.

The agreement, announced during a City Council debate over the school’s future, delighted its alumni and friends, who have been fighting to save the campus.

“We’re extremely gratified,” said 1955 graduate Rita Scherrei, president of the Circle of Conaty Friends. “I think the school is a model of integration--black kids from the area, immigrants from Mexico and South America.”

Bishop Conaty, at 2900 W. Pico Blvd., is the oldest archdiocese-owned school in Los Angeles.

The school has been in jeopardy since the first of the year, when archdiocese officials said they would tear it down because of the $1.3 million needed to bring the facilities up to earthquake safety standards.

Also, officials pointed out, the school’s enrollment has steadily declined from a peak of about 1,100 girls in the late 1950s.

The enrollment for this school year was 320, said Sister Joann Bauer, the principal.

Scherrei’s group, which opposed demolition, had sought the historic designation and the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission agreed to recommend it to the council.

But the tactic was dropped Tuesday when news of the agreement surfaced during the council meeting.

Archdiocese officials agreed to conduct a full study of the building’s structural integrity and promised not to apply for a demolition permit until it completes a study of the church’s entire regional school system.

That would take 1 1/2 years to complete, allowing classes to continue at Bishop Conaty for the 1988-89 school year, officials said.

The 60 days’ notice should be sufficient time to reapply for the historic designation, Scherrei said.