2 Primary Centers Planned in Valley

Hoping to ease overcrowding in San Fernando Valley elementary schools, the Los Angeles Unified School District is expected to submit reports Tuesday to the Board of Education calling for a September opening of two primary centers for younger students.

In two weeks, the board is expected to approve the establishment of Valerio and Monroe primary centers.

Valerio Primary Center is scheduled to open Sept. 13 and serve about 200 kindergartners and first-graders during the 1999-2000 school year. The following year, the center would expand to serve 360 kindergartners through second-graders.

The center, at 14935 Valerio St. in Van Nuys, would help relieve crowding at Valerio Street Elementary School, which has 1,461 students.

Monroe Primary Center, at 9075 Willis Ave. in Panorama City, would reduce enrollment at Plummer and Liggett Street elementary schools, which have 1,677 and 1,328 students, respectively.

Also scheduled to open on Sept. 13, Monroe would house 220 kindergartners during the 1999-2000 school year. The following year, the center would expand to 480 kindergarten through first-grade students.

Primary centers are brightly decorated mini-campuses, designed to keep the district’s youngest students in schools near their homes and to give these students the attention they need.

With an increasing number of students entering the district, primary centers also help to ease crowding at elementary schools, particularly in the Valley.

“The Valley is one of the largest areas of growth in the district,” said Bob Niccum, the district’s director of real estate and asset management. “All indications tell us the growth will continue, [and in the Valley] move westward.”

The district plans to build six primary centers and three elementary schools in the area east of the San Diego Freeway and north of Oxnard Street.

Niccum added that the district is waiting for state approval for additional funding which would allow it build dozens of new elementary schools and primary centers.

The additional sites are necessary, Niccum said, because of growth and the district’s class-size reduction program, which mandates a maximum student-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grades of 20 to 1.