Gardena Jr. High System Revamped to Ease Crowding

To ease overcrowding at elementary schools in the Gardena area, Los Angeles school board members this week approved adding ninth-graders to Gardena High School and converting its feeder junior high into a middle school.

The changes, approved Monday, are to go into effect in July.

Gardena High School, which has declined in enrollment during the last several years, will gain about 560 new students. Peary Junior High, which formerly taught seventh- through ninth-graders, will become a sixth- through eighth-grade middle school.

Six elementary schools that feed into Peary--Amestoy, Chapman, Denker, Gardena, 153rd Street and 156th Street--will now teach kindergarten through fifth-grade students, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said.

“In the city of Gardena, that helps a lot because it will relieve overcrowded classrooms,” said board member Warren Furutani, who represents Gardena and surrounding areas.

The six elementary schools had experienced steady or major enrollment increases for the last several years, said Francis Nakano, Region A superintendent for the district. Denker, Gardena and Amestoy are at or near enrollment capacity.

Furutani said the changes are part of a national trend toward the middle school concept. A middle school, he said, eases a student’s transition from elementary school better than does a junior high school.

Peary will also alter its schedule so that students will have the same four teachers for the three years they attend the middle school. Under the school’s current schedule, the students have six or more teachers each year.