15 Sites Studied for School for Expelled Students : Education: District officials make announcement after Woodland Hills residents protest suggestion that problem students be sent to now-closed Hughes Junior High.

Los Angeles school officials said Wednesday they are studying about 15 locations throughout the city, including a Woodland Hills site that roused neighbors’ fears, to house special classes for the growing number of students expelled from regular schools for violence, or possessing drugs or weapons.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials suggested earlier this week that about 30 expelled students be sent to two classrooms at the former Hughes Junior High School in Woodland Hills, now used as office space for district administrators.

The suggestion drew complaints from nearby residents who said they feared that the students would increase crime in the west San Fernando Valley neighborhood.

City Councilwoman Joy Picus, who lives about a block from the school site, said she is adamantly opposed to the proposal.

“We moved to Woodlands Hills because it has a very low crime rate,” said Melinda Harrison, a real estate agent who lives in a cul-de-sac that faces the school. “It’s a frightening thought. These students were expelled for criminal offenses.”

Barry Mostovoy, administrative consultant for school operations, said the Hughes school is only one of about 15 closed campuses and administrative offices being considered for use by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which operates special schools and assists local districts.

Despite news reports that Hughes was the only site under consideration, other unnamed sites are also possibilities, he said. “Hughes was just one name that popped out” during a school board discussion Monday night, he said.

Mostovoy, who declined to name the sites, said they are divided about evenly between the San Fernando Valley and the rest of the school district.

The county office now operates 14 community day centers, where expelled students can earn high school diplomas while receiving special attention in smaller-than-average classes. But the Los Angeles district has used up its allotted number of seats in the county program and the centers are full.

With a tough new expulsion policy this year, Los Angeles school officials expect to boot out more than 200 students by June, almost five times the 41 students expelled in the 1988-89 school year.

Unlike previous years, when most students classified as “expelled” were simply transferred to other schools, students caught carrying weapons are now removed from the system entirely. They can apply for readmission after two semesters.

West Valley school board member Julie Korenstein, who pushed for increasing expulsions in the district, said the district must also do its share to find other schools for them.

“I don’t want them wandering the streets,” Korenstein said. “It is also more cost-effective to find them a place in school rather than a place in the juvenile justice system or prison.”

However, Korenstein said she opposes the Hughes site because it is at the western edge of the county, too far for most students to travel.

Picus, who is in Houston attending a meeting of the League of Cities, is “absolutely opposed to this use of the school,” said her aide, Jackie Brainard. Picus believes the school would “bring in kids with severe behavioral problems and would have an extremely negative impact on a quiet, peaceful neighborhood,” Brainard said.

Her office received about 25 “really emotional” phone calls from local residents opposed to the proposal, Brainard said.

Bob Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said he received about seven phone calls from residents opposed to use of the Hughes site.

“There is a fear in the area that all of a sudden they are going to be robbed, raped and murdered and that all kinds of bad things are going to happen to them,” Gross said.

Nonetheless, he said, the Hughes campus should be given serious consideration.

“We can’t just abandon these youths,” Gross said. “There has to be a program offered and available to help the kids that want help, or else they will be out there on the streets doing things we would rather not have them do. Whether Hughes Junior High is an appropriate campus for that, though, remains to be seen.”

Gross said he is asking the district for more information about what provisions will be made for student transportation, security and after-school activities. He said the homeowners board will discuss the issue at its meeting tonight.