BUENA PARK : Centralia District Opening 9th School

Centralia School District will open classroom doors to its ninth school today.-- It is the district’s first year-round school.

The $5.5-million Centralia School, at 195 N. Western Ave. in Anaheim, will open with a staff of 22 teachers and an enrollment of 590 students in kindergarten through sixth grade, according to Paul Burkart, director of fiscal services.

The new school is on the site of the old Centralia School built in 1936 and closed in 1981 because of declining enrollment. In the past few years, enrollment has grown and the new school will now help to relieve overcrowding in three other schools, officials said.

The new school “adds another dimension of what we can offer parents,” Interim Supt. John D. Carlyle said. “We can offer parents a continuous education program for their children, and we also feel it is going to be an advantage to students.”

The school district’s eight other elementary schools are in Buena Park, La Palma and Anaheim and are operated on a traditional calendar.

Burkart said the old school was demolished, except for eight classrooms and the multipurpose room, which were renovated, and 20 new classrooms were built on the site.

The district is leasing a portion of the school site fronting Lincoln Avenue, where low-income senior housing is under construction.

Burkart said income from the lease will help pay for the new school.

Slow but steady growth in district enrollment over the past eight years made the new school necessary, Burkart said.