Hughes School Dropped as Site for Expelled Students

Los Angeles school officials said Tuesday that they are no longer considering Hughes Junior High School in Woodland Hills as a potential site to house classes for students expelled from regular schools because of weapons possession or assaults.

The district instead is exploring several options, including housing such students at some of the 38 adult education schools scattered across Los Angeles or at storefront sites used by dropout prevention programs, said Barry Mostovoy, administrative consultant for school operations.

Mostovoy said community opposition played a role in the district’s decision to drop Hughes, a closed school now used for administrative offices, as a possible site. School board member Julie Korenstein, who represents Woodland Hills, opposed the proposal as did City Councilwoman Joy Picus, who lives about a block from Hughes.

Both elected officials said their offices received calls of complaint last week from nearby residents who feared that bringing in delinquent students would increase crime and lower property values in the west San Fernando Valley neighborhood.

“It wasn’t an appropriate location,” Korenstein said, adding that it would be unfair to subject already troubled students to long bus rides from distant parts of the Valley.

County officials, who had agreed to operate the program if the Los Angeles Unified School District provided the site, said the school would have served only students who reside in the Valley.

“It’s not like we’d be importing kids to go to school there,” said David Flores, who runs the county’s 14 special schools for students who have been expelled, put on probation or are otherwise unable to learn in a traditional school setting. Each school has two classrooms and about 34 students, which offers students a chance to succeed in a small setting with individualized attention.

Nonetheless, neighbors breathed a sigh of relief at the news.

“I’m glad,” said Melinda Harrison, a real estate agent who lives in a cul-de-sac that faces the school. “I’m sure the school will eventually be used, but I would hope the district can find something that would be an asset to the neighborhood instead of a liability.”

Korenstein said the school board should consider opening schools for expelled students in each of the seven board members’ districts. Officials project that up to 250 students--some as young as 13--will be kicked out of Los Angeles schools this academic year as a result of a new policy calling for automatic expulsion for those who bring firearms to school or commit serious assaults. But because the county’s special schools for troubled youths are full, many may be turned out onto the streets.

To avoid that, school officials are considering adding classrooms to the adult education program, which has 38 campuses districtwide and also leases space at churches and community centers.

Additionally, the district is studying the possibility of adding rooms for expelled students at 21 locations now used for a dropout recovery program.

Presently, private contractors are paid by the district to run independent-study programs for about 1,000 students who have dropped out of regular school. The program is run out of storefronts, and students spend about four hours a day there, Mostovoy said.