1st New Elementary School in 17 Years : District Seeks San Fernando School Site

The Los Angeles Unified School District is searching for a site for an elementary school in the San Fernando area to help relieve crowding there, school officials said Friday.

“We’re looking for acreage that would not displace homeowners,” said Max J. Barney, planning director for the district’s building services division. The planned school would be the first elementary school to be built in the San Fernando Valley since 1971.

About 5 acres would be needed to house about 750 students for the school, which could be three to five years away from completion, Barney said.

“It’s still very much in the early stages,” Barney said.

The district has applied for state funds to build the school, which would cost an estimated $10 million. District officials expect enrollment levels in the next three to four years to make the planned San Fernando school eligible for state land acquisition and construction funds, Barney said.

“There is no doubt that there’s a need for another school,” said Los Angeles School Board President Roberta Weintraub, who represents the East Valley.

The new school would lessen the need to bus East Valley children to West Valley schools, which are not as crowded, Weintraub said. About 20 West Valley schools were closed in the early 1980s because of declining enrollments, possibly making school construction more difficult to sell to Valley taxpayers, Weintraub said.

“It would be very hard for the public to understand that the kids need to be in the same place,” she said. “It would not be difficult politically because the need is there.”

In addition to the new school, the district is planning a 14-classroom addition to Morningside Elementary School in San Fernando, Barney said. The preliminary cost estimate is $1.5 million, he said.

In December, 1986, the school district applied for state funds to build two schools in San Fernando and three in Sylmar. But in September, enrollment in the East Valley did not rise as sharply as expected, and officials scaled back their plans and decided to build the single school in San Fernando, Barney said.

The last elementary school built in the Valley was the Castlebay Lane School in Northridge in 1971.