LAUSD Unveils $1.8-Billion Plan

Los Angeles Unified School District administrators unveiled a $1.8-billion construction plan Monday they said will end busing and allow all students to attend school in their own neighborhoods within eight years.

The building plan calls for 51 new schools, on year-round schedules, spread across the central and eastern portions of the district, which are expected to have the greatest growth over the next decade.

The school district intends to build nine high schools, four continuation high schools, five middle schools, 13 elementary schools and 20 primary centers.

The east and central San Fernando Valley, which is experiencing rapid enrollment growth, stands to gain two high schools, two middle schools, three elementary schools and six primary centers--small campuses that serve the youngest students.

The district also plans to expand 15 existing campuses, add 458 portable classrooms at 55 campuses and change boundaries to relieve overcrowding at 52 schools.

“We cannot wait one minute for this plan,” said school board President Julie Korenstein, the only board member who represents Valley areas exclusively. “This is the right thing, the important thing.”

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Principals at already crowded schools on year-round schedules welcomed the prospect of new campuses, even as school board members acknowledged the many hurdles facing the ambitious endeavor.

“There definitely needs to be another high school in the East Valley, given the current enrollment levels,” said Principal Carolyn R. Burt of Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, where the space crunch forces teachers to share classrooms.

With an enrollment of 3,500, Poly switched to a year-round schedule two years ago. Even so, school officials anticipate the need for an additional 2,379 seats by 2006, when high school enrollment is expected to peak in the district.

“Our feeder schools are already on the year-round calendar,” Burt said. “More schools need to be built at all levels.”

The school district’s plan assumes that at least 174 schools now on traditional two-semester calendars will switch to year-round schedules. The new schedules call for 163 days of instruction, 17 fewer than traditional calendars, with longer school days to make up the teaching time--a strategy that has drawn criticism among educators.

“The children are tired by the end of the day. It’s not educationally sound,” said Linda Barr, program coordinator at Cantara Street Elementary in Reseda, one of the schools that would go year-round. “They need more days as opposed to longer hours.”

The plan comes at a time of unprecedented growth in the school district.

Some 14,000 students, mostly from poor areas, now are bused to distant schools because their neighborhood campuses cannot accommodate them. The number of bused students is expected to reach 30,000 in five years and 80,000 over the next decade.

“That’s the size of two Seattle school districts,” Supt. Ruben Zacarias said Monday morning as he announced the plan at Cahuenga Elementary, a school near Koreatown that is forced to bus 1,400 students from the community each day.

School board members greeted the plan enthusiastically at a meeting later in the day, but ticked off a host of potential obstacles.

Only half of the $1.8 billion cost is now available--the school district has set aside $900 million in Proposition BB funds for new schools. The district must still come up with nearly $1 billion in additional funding.

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Administrators are depending on a state bond measure that would generate an extra $574 million for new schools, and are hoping it will be placed on the November ballot. Even if the bond measure is placed on the ballot and passes, the district will need to raise another $350 million. Administrators say the money could come from developer fees and the district’s general fund.

“We are going to depend on the state to come through with a bond measure. If that fails us, we’ll be in serious trouble,” Korenstein said.

School board member Jeff Horton warned his colleagues about other looming battles as the district seeks to condemn property to acquire the land needed for schools.

“Buying this land is going to be a nightmare,” Horton said. “Imagine taking people’s homes and businesses. We all need to steel ourselves. Get ready. It’s going to be a roller-coaster ride. It’s going to be the most difficult thing we do.”

Steven Soboroff, chairman of the Proposition BB citizens oversight committee, urged school administrators to act carefully as they try to obtain land for new schools.

At Monday’s school board meeting, Soboroff recommended that the school district form a task force of real estate investors to offer advice.

“I would hope you would engage the private sector . . . so you wouldn’t overspend,” Soboroff told the school board.

The construction blueprint would devote $200 million to upgrading gyms, cafeterias and other facilities.

The plan assumes that class sizes would be reduced or remain as they are now in all grades. In kindergarten through third grade, the current maximum of 20 students per teacher would be extended to all classes. In the remaining grades, classes would be reduced by an average of two or three students each.

Although school board members generally applauded the building plan, at least one criticized it for failing to analyze the impact of massive construction projects on local neighborhoods.

Board member David Tokofsky said the plan does not address how new schools would affect such things as housing patterns and property values.

“This is a panic-driven view of how you construct a city,” Tokofsky said. “This is not a master plan. It’s a picture of where kids are and where the classroom shortages are. It is thinking at the most elementary level.”

Indeed, district administrators who developed the proposal called it a “plan for a crisis,” but said that failing to act immediately will leave schools without enough seats for all of their students in the coming years.

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Ultimately, the plan will hinge on several factors, including the accuracy of the district’s growth projections and whether the school board decides to reduce all class sizes. The school board will complete the proposal in the coming months.

“The plan is dynamic,” said Assistant Supt. Gordon Wohlers, one of the document’s authors. “If the economy keeps growing, we’re going to have to come back to the school board for more schools.”

Times staff writer Vanessa Hua contributed to this story.

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New Schools

The LAUSD building plan unveiled Monday calls for seven new schools to be constructed in the Valley by 2006 to relieve crowding. The proposed locations of the new schools are all in the East Valley.

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School Relief

Under a building plan announced Monday by Los Angeles Unified School District officals, two new high schools, two middle schools and three elementary schools would be built in the Valley by 2006.

District officals said the new schools are needed to meet a projected shortage of classroom seats over the next eight years.

The following is a list of Valley schools the LAUSD said would be especially overcrowded if the proposed campuses are not built.

Estimated shortage figures were given by the LAUSD for high schools and middle schools, but not for elementary schools.

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High Schools

Existing schools: Canoga Park

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 586

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Existing schools: Cleveland

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 350

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Existing schools: Monroe

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 2,488

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Existing schools: North Hollywood

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 1,004

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Existing schools: Polytechnic

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 2,379

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Existing schools: Reseda

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 462

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Existing schools: San Fernando

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 1,630

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Existing schools: Sylmar

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 669

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Existing schools: Van Nuys

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 1,690

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Middle Schools

Existing schools: Byrd

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 537

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Existing schools: Sepulveda

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 824

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Existing schools: Sun Valley

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 1,084

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Existing schools: Van Nuys

Estimated shortage in classroom seats by 2006: 547

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Elementary schools affected

Bassett St.

Fair Ave.

Fenton Ave.

Hazeltine Ave.

Langdon Ave.

Lankershim

Liggett St.

Montague St.

Noble Ave.

Oxnard St.

Plummer

Valerio St.

Van Nuys

Vaughn

Victory Blvd.