. . . New Approach to Solutions

If the Los Angeles Unified School District ends up converting some east San Fernando Valley middle schools to high schools, as suggested in a proposal unveiled a week ago, the resulting high schools will be smaller than usual. That could be good news, at least according to the critics who believe Los Angeles high schools are too big now. But it also means more high schools would be needed to accommodate enrollment growth. And new high schools traditionally are among the hardest to place because they require large parcels of land.

In other words, even if the proposal is accepted, still more creative thinking will be needed.

Although in the talking stages, one promising idea is to reopen the Prairie Street Elementary school in Northridge as a high school.

Prairie elementary was one of about 20 West Valley campuses closed in the early 1980s when enrollments dropped.

It is no longer needed as an elementary school, but LAUSD school management services director Dale Braun believes it could be converted to a high school.

It would be much smaller than traditional high schools. But Braun sees that--and the school’s location next to Cal State Northridge--as an opportunity.

The high school and the college could share athletic facilities as well as classroom and instructional facilities. And if CSUN’s College of Education wanted to use the school as a teaching laboratory, all the better.

The school’s proximity and relationship to the CSUN campus could have the added advantage of encouraging high school students to continue their education.

“If the programs could be more integrated than just sharing physical facilities, then perhaps that could be a way to facilitate entry into college,” Braun says.

It should be emphasized that this idea is very preliminary. And, if the past is any indication, reopening the school could be as controversial as closing it was.

Neighbors, still bitter at the 1984 vote to close the school, opposed its reopening in 1988. Some school board members argued that reopening the school would cost too much. Others, that children in crowded schools could be better accommodated by switching to year-round schedules rather than being bused to Prairie.

If reopening the Prairie Street school was controversial before, it’s likely to be more controversial now. The addition of high-school-age students tends to rile neighbors even more than younger ones.

But given the problems the district faces finding sites for schools and the potential to develop a relationship with CSUN, it’s a solution worth exploring.