For Continuation School, Only the Memories Will Endure

FAREWELL REUNION: Pacific Shores Continuation High in Manhattan Beach, which for years has taken in problem students, will have a reunion for its graduates before closing its doors next month.

Pacific Shores, which is operated by the soon-to-be-dissolved South Bay Union High School District, was opened in 1965 for students who had attendance or behavioral problems.

“In the early ‘60s, students would be sent here because of the way they cut their hair or because they didn’t look right,” said science teacher Van Peterson.

Long hair, in fact, brought one of the school’s more renowned graduates to its doors--Torrance attorney

William J. Beverly, who is a trustee for the El Camino College Board of Trustees. Beverly is also the son of state Sen. Robert G. Beverly, (R-Redondo Beach).

It’s been years since long hair was considered anti-social enough to send a student to continuation school. The kinds of problems that bring students to the school today more often include drug use or gang involvement.

Students sent to the school from regular high schools embark on an individualized learning plan tailored to their special needs, interests and abilities.

The program has its successes: One recent graduate is the manager of a large home-improvement store in Torrance. Another recently finished UCLA Medical School and another became a professor at Compton College.

All graduates are invited to the reunion, which will take place on May 21 from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at Pacific Shores Continuation School, 325 Peck Ave., in Manhattan Beach.

The school, which now has more than 100 students in the 11th and 12th grades, will be shut next month when the South Bay Union High School District goes out of business.

Pacific Shores continuation students will enroll in a school in the newly formed Redondo Beach Union High School District, while the building will become the property of the newly formed Manhattan Beach Unified School District.

The other schools operated by the high school district, Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Union High in Redondo Beach, will be distributed between the two newly unified school districts.

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HEALTHY CHILDREN: South Bay children can be immunized against measles, diphtheria, polio, rubella, mumps, tetanus and other diseases at a free immunization clinic that will be held Saturday at Holy Family School, 1122 E. Robidoux St. in Wilmington.

The immunizations are sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles Rotary Club No. 5, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and several local health organizations.

The shots will be available to all children who need them, from infants to teen-agers.

Last year, nearly 100 children were immunized at the clinic, said Sister Martin Marie King, principal of Holy Family School. “Sometimes we think childhood diseases are something we go through, but sometimes they can be dangerous,” she said.

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AUTHOR’S FAIR: Children’s author and illustrator Dolores Johnson visited Zela Davis Elementary School in Hawthorne this week, where she spoke to children about the joys of reading and writing.

The children, in kindergarten through third grade, were particularly interested in how Johnson creates illustrations and develops story lines, said Victoria Warner, principal of the Zela Davis school.

Johnson was one of dozens of authors who shared their works at schools throughout the South Bay on Tuesday during an Author Fair sponsored by the South Bay Area Reading Council.

The program “encourages children to bond more closely with reading and books,” Warner said. “It’s a unique experience for children to have direct contact with an author. . . . It’s very motivating to the kids.”

Items for the weekly Class Notes column can be mailed to The Times South Bay office, 23133 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 200, Torrance, CA 90505, or faxed to (310) 373-5753 to the attention of staff reporter Kim Kowsky.