Torrance Board Votes to Reopen Middle School

The Torrance Unified School District Board of Education voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to reopen a middle school in southwest Torrance to ease crowding at Calle Mayor and Lynn middle schools.

The board said middle school boundaries will eventually be changed, but the board must first decide which of two closed middle schools in southwest Torrance--Jefferson or Newton--will be reopened later this year.

The board has not decided whether to open the school only to sixth-graders with a gradual phase-in of the seventh and eighth grades, or to all middle school grades.

The decision to reopen a school came after lengthy debate, during which the board also discussed putting portable classrooms at four existing middle schools during the 1992-93 school year, then opening a middle school the next school year.

But that idea, favored by board President Ann Gallagher and Vice President William Blischke, was defeated in favor of opening a closed school for the 1992-93 school year. Voting to open the school were board members David Sargent, John Eubanks and Owen Griffith.

District officials said the additional middle school will cost $270,000 annually in salaries, maintenance and operations. It will cost $534,000 to renovate the old campus.

Buying new portables would have cost $300,000, officials said.

Sargent said he voted to reopen a school because of the crowded conditions at many campuses. He noted that Calle Mayor has about 1,000 students and Lynn 900, and said a new school could reduce enrollment at each school by up to 30%.

“The kids in Lynn and Calle Mayor are being shortchanged,” he said.

District officials said enrollments at Calle Mayor and Lynn middle schools and Victor Elementary School have increased 15% to 20% in the past few years.

Officials blame some of the increased enrollment on a flight of students into the district from neighboring districts that have gone to year-round programs. These students are not legally enrolled in the Torrance schools, but only a painstaking verification of student addresses, which Torrance Unified recently mounted, will determine the extent of the problem.