VAN NUYS : On-Ramp to Internet Being Built at Magnet

There’s no big orange sign to mark it, but the first on-ramp to the information superhighway from a San Fernando Valley public school is under construction at one of the Los Angeles district’s newest magnet schools.

Teachers and coordinators at Grant High School’s communication technology magnet are spending the summer setting up computers and putting together a curriculum that will introduce students to global communication through Internet.

“I am very excited about it,” said Ellis Kaufman, coordinator of the new magnet. “We are out there, pioneering something.”

The 180-student magnet, one of 10 new magnet schools in the Valley, will also focus on radio, television and video production.

No other schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District have formal programs to use Internet already in place, according to the district’s information technology division. But Garfield High School in Los Angeles and a new magnet at the Los Angeles Public Library are starting similar programs this year, and will serve as models for future districtwide communication programs. The district is awaiting word on an application for a $2.4-million federal grant to link 26 high schools to Internet.

“What we really want to do is to have all teachers and students have access to Internet,” said Andy Rogers, a coordinator for the information technology division.

The magnet program at Grant in Van Nuys will feature a 20-computer lab and up to eight computers in each of six classrooms, linked together so that students can share information from different classes.

“What we want to do is expose our students to all of these technologies so they can function in a global community,” Kaufman said. “Students on the high school level are just not being prepared for that new world.”

There are more than 100 spaces open for ninth- and 10th-graders at the Grant magnet, which is housed on the campus of Grant High. For information, call (818) 781-1400.