Changes in Leadership Came to Schools in 1999

Leadership changes, rising enrollment and campus construction projects dominated this year’s education agenda in the San Fernando Valley’s public schools.

Voters elected a reform-minded school board in April with hopes of solving some of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s mounting problems, such as overcrowding and the need to find uncontaminated land for new schools.

Two reformist board members, David Tokofsky and Caprice Young, represent East Valley districts containing some of the city’s most crowded campuses.

Despite the need, proposed school sites have sparked opposition. In Arleta, residents objected to a plan to build a high school at a former Gemco department store that was going to be developed into a supermarket.

But pressure from the school district forced the developer to go elsewhere. Meanwhile, the district is studying the Gemco site as a possible location for a school.

In North Hollywood, community outcry caused the district to back down from its plan to acquire 44 homes and apartments and three businesses through eminent domain in a tree-lined neighborhood where some residents had lived since before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Controversy still rages in North Hollywood, where Young proposed in September studying the feasibility of converting a Robinsons-May department store into a much-needed high school. The property also houses the corporate headquarters for the 56-store Robinsons-May division and is part of a 55-acre retail district known as Twin Plaza.

Residents and business leaders argue a school would hurt revitalization efforts and the East Valley’s economy.

Overcrowding also threatens North Hollywood High School’s nationally acclaimed magnet program for the highly gifted if the campus converts to a multitrack year-round calendar next year to accommodate surging enrollment.

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Small relief came this fall when the Valley welcomed four new schools. After being closed since the mid-1980s, Newcastle Elementary School in Reseda reopened with an estimated 350 children, and Monroe Primary Center in Panorama City opened with 220 kindergartners and first-graders.

Concerns about dangerous levels of arsenic in the soil delayed for about a month the opening of the Valerio Primary Center in Van Nuys, when environmental tests determined only safe levels of the metallic, naturally occurring carcinogen.

After several attempts to find a home, the Valley’s first charter middle school settled into a former preschool in San Fernando with 100 sixth-graders.

As the nation reeled from the horror of a school massacre in Columbine, Colo., in April, rumors of violence spread through Valley campuses and caused thousands of fearful students to be absent. And while a gunman in August shot children and workers at the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, Valley schools suffered few violent episodes.

Perhaps the most publicized incident occurred in February, when the principal at Burton Elementary School in Panorama City was allegedly beaten by anti-white assailants angry because he failed to understand the needs of the mostly Latino school.

In a single afternoon in October, violence erupted at two Valley high schools--a shooting at San Fernando High School and a melee involving more than 200 students caused by ethnic tensions at Grant High School in Valley Glen.

Valley schools also earned some of the district’s most prestigious honors. For the third straight year, North Hollywood High School produced the No. 1 Advanced Placement scholar in the nation, as well as the top 11th-grade AP scholar.

Last spring, the school also took second place for the second consecutive year in the National Science Bowl, a fast-paced contest testing scientific and mathematical knowledge.

El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills beat five other school district teams and placed second in the California Academic Decathlon in March. The school, which had won the national decathlon last year and the state championship the past four years, lost its state title to rival Moorpark High School in Ventura County.

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With Van Nuys High School leading the way, Valley schools posted some of the top scores in Los Angeles on the 1998-99 SAT exams.

But as the year wound down, district troubles overshadowed any successes. The $200-million, environmentally plagued Belmont Learning Complex near downtown and the ouster of Supt. Ruben Zacarias helped build momentum for a citywide movement to break up the school district.

That effort is being led by Valley VOTE, the group pushing for the Valley to form its own city. It sponsored a citywide forum in November for activists who believe smaller school districts provide greater local control, increased access to administrators and more educational opportunities.

The Valley’s four public institutions of higher learning also saw increasing enrollment and leadership changes. Most of Cal State Northridge’s top administrators left their jobs, including President Blenda J. Wilson.

In November, the system’s Board of Trustees hired Jolene Koester, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Cal State Sacramento, to take over the Northridge campus in June.

Wilson, who is often credited with helping CSUN rebuild after the 1994 earthquake devastated the campus, took the helm of a Massachusetts-based educational foundation this summer.

After a year of bruising investigations into financial mismanagement at Los Angeles Community College District campuses, the Board of Trustees experienced a similar management shake-up. City voters elected three new members to the seven-person Board of Trustees--including Glendale Community College professor Mona Field.

In what was seen as a coup for Los Angeles’ beleaguered community college system, former Santa Monica College Vice President Rocky Young was hired in April to head Pierce College. He replaced Bing Inocencio, after the board refused to renew his contract.

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William R. Norlund resigned from the presidency of Mission College in June, amid accusations that his administration mismanaged $4.7 million in state land acquisition funds. His departure opened the way for a messy presidential search process that was scrapped by the newly elected board and started anew. Mission remains the only Valley campus without a permanent president.

Valley College President Tyree Weider was the only community college chief in the San Fernando Valley to retain her job.

Enrollment continued to climb this year, by 9% at the Valley’s community colleges and by about 400 students at Cal State Northridge.

Campus development projects were in various phases of development this year at the Valley’s public colleges. In August the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees rejected three proposals to build a golf course on the 200-acre Pierce College farm.

During her final days as president of Cal State Northridge, Wilson approved a stadium site on the university’s North Campus--despite fears of neighboring homeowners who complain that a stadium would hold too many clamorous events. Funding for the proposed stadium remains elusive, however.

A less controversial North Campus development is MiniMed’s biomedical facility, which broke ground at the end of May.