School Gate Debate Remains Unresolved

A special meeting of the city’s Transportation Committee this week yielded no solutions to the debate over gates near San Fernando High School that were designed to block access to a city street that runs through campus, officials said Friday.

A committee of residents and school officials are expected to convene sometime in June to try to iron out their differences, city officials said.

At the center of the controversy is a gate erected earlier this year to keep pedestrians and cars off the portion of Chamberlain Street that runs between two sections of the campus.

School officials had received permission from the city 10 years ago to erect a swing-gate barrier to keep out unauthorized cars during school hours.

But they drew the ire of the community in January when they put up much more elaborate fencing and closed the street to pedestrians as well. That, in effect, made the street an extension of the campus.

Hewitt Hornbeck, an assistant principal, said that since the pedestrian-access gates were taken down, students have been required to walk out the front gates and down side streets to get to the football field, the children’s day-care center and other classrooms.

Residents complained that closure of the city street is inconvenient, requiring them to walk or drive out of their way to get around the neighborhood, and that the gates hampered emergency vehicles’ access.