Everywoman School Is Forced to Close

Everywoman’s Village, a longtime community institution that had been battling for financial survival, recently closed its doors.

The school, which opened in 1963 and became a model for women’s education, was unable to raise enough money to continue offering classes, Executive Director Laura Selwyn said Saturday.

Last summer, the school’s board of directors announced it would close in November unless sufficient money could be raised to cover an $80,000 deficit. The nonprofit school was unable to find a corporate or individual sponsor or government funding, Selwyn said.

The school was also unable to enroll 300 more students, a boost that would also have wiped out the deficit, Selwyn said. The school, which had an enrollment of 700, depended on student fees to operate. It closed last Sunday.

Staff and students said the closing was a painful last chapter. “It’s like a morgue around here,” Selwyn said. “It’s a loss for the community.”

This month, the school was forced to stop offering all courses, Selwyn said. Officials have considered several options to keep Everywoman’s Village as an organization, including selling off campus property to raise funds for other projects.

“Now is an exploration period,” Selwyn said. “We hope to be as innovative in the future as we were in our founding.”

In 1963, Chris Edwards, Lynn Selwyn--Laura Selwyn’s mother and Edwards’ sister--and friend Diane Rosner came up with an idea for a school in which students could learn without the pressures of traditional academia. They transformed three rundown bungalows into a complex of 13 classrooms and workshops.

The school is planning a yard sale at its campus, at 5650 Sepulveda Blvd., on Dec. 4 and 5, when it will sell furniture, classroom and office supplies, computers, darkroom equipment and pianos.