Enrollment Surge Forces District to Reopen School
Growing enrollment at schools that feed into the Centinela Valley Union High School District has prompted the district to make plans to reopen Lawndale High School.
The district plans to spend $1.5 million beginning next month to renovate the school to accommodate 9th- and 10th-graders next fall. The district plans to add a new 9th grade class each subsequent year, said Sonja Davis, who is scheduled to become principal.
Lawndale High School closed in 1981 when enrollment in the district, which serves students from Hawthorne, Lennox and Lawndale, declined. The high school currently houses the district offices and the continuation high school.
The district plans to add 16 portable classrooms, and district officials are seeking a new site for their offices.
Last year, Hawthorne High School soared beyond capacity, forcing the district to redirect students to Leuzinger High School, Davis said. She said the reopening of Lawndale High, which was closed because it was smaller than the other two campuses, will give the district three comprehensive high schools.
“The facility is fully utilized now, but we really need it as a school,” said Davis.
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