Mothballed School Ready to Relieve Crowding

An elementary school in Sepulveda that was closed five years ago because of declining enrollment will reopen Tuesday as Los Angeles school officials brace for an anticipated increase in the number of students attending San Fernando Valley schools.

“The northeast Valley is extremely overcrowded and over the next few years will become more and more overcrowded,” said Roberta Weintraub, Los Angeles Unified School District board member and East Valley representative.

Parthenia Street elementary school is being reopened to relieve crowding at Langdon Avenue, Plummer and Noble Avenue elementary schools, also in Sepulveda. About 300 students from those schools will attend Parthenia, which has been painted and refurbished, said Irene Y. Curtis, regional administrator.

Throughout the district, officials are predicting that enrollment will climb from about 595,000 students to about 602,000 this year and continue growing to about 656,400 by the fall of 1993. The district’s highest enrollment--656,000 students--was in 1968.

The enrollment increases are caused by rising birth rates, as well as new apartments in the Valley, district officials said.

In a related effort to ease school crowding, district officials announced last week that they had applied for special state funds to construct an elementary school in Sylmar. If the district wins the funds and builds the school, it would be the first elementary school built in the Valley since the 1960s.

Breakup May Be Revived

Weintraub said Valley residents this year may revive the idea of breaking up the Los Angeles school district, the nation’s second largest, into smaller districts unless schools are able to improve students’ academic performance. She said the pay raises and additional school decision-making powers won by teachers during last spring’s nine-day strike has raised the expectations of parents and community members.

“We’ve turned over, to a great extent, the world to the teachers,” Weintraub said. “Now it’s ‘Do what you said you were going to do.’ ”

Teachers will receive raises of 24% over three years under terms of the contract, which expires in 1991.

In October, most schools will conduct elections for one-year positions on newly created school councils, which will have the power to decide on school schedules, use of equipment and some spending. Half of the councils’ membership will consist of teachers and other staff members; the other half will be made up of parents and administrators.

In another program change this year, North Hollywood High School will open a magnet school for highly gifted sophomores, juniors and seniors. Students who score 145 and above on district-administered IQ tests will be eligible to attend.

Playgrounds at all Valley elementary schools will be open and supervised by a district employee every school day until 6 p.m.