No Longer the School of Hard Knocks

Nearly four years after the Northridge earthquake battered Van Gogh Elementary School, the Granada Hills campus has been rebuilt better than before--yet another sign that the San Fernando Valley has bounced back from disaster. Students returned to the campus in September but the new buildings and grounds were dedicated last week.

Just two classes of students from the 1993-94 school year--kindergartners and first-graders then--remain. Few remember the old campus, which suffered more damage than any other in Los Angeles.

Classrooms are modern and clean and share gardens. Foundations have been reinforced to provide an extra layer of safety. Classrooms have special anterooms for computers and other electronic equipment, giving students a quiet place to work on projects. In short, Van Gogh is everything a modern elementary school ought to be. Quite a change from before.

But that’s the way it’s been the past few years. While the predawn earthquake surely knocked the Valley for a loop, the spurt of rebuilding financed by money from insurance companies and federal disaster agencies has revamped entire neighborhoods--from schools like Van Gogh and malls like the Northridge Fashion Center to whole blocks of houses. Finally, after nearly four trying years, the Valley is seeing the bright side of that very dark January morning.