South Gate Families, Losing Patience, Plead for Schools

In 1987, the year Lindsay Cox turned 1, the Los Angeles school board voted to close Tweedy Elementary School in South Gate because of health concerns caused by nearby industrial sites.

In its place, the district set up a makeshift school in a city park--a collection of bungalows on a fenced-off slab of asphalt. The plan was to build a replacement school and another high school.

Twelve years later, Lindsay is a pretty, dark-haired 13-year-old, with a love of theater and ballet folklorico. The makeshift school in the park is exactly where it was when she was a baby. The middle school the eighth-grader attends has 4,222 students. And the high school she will attend next year is still the only one in South Gate.

South Gate High School operates on a year-round schedule to accommodate overcrowding so bad that the lunch bell rings before all the students can make it through the cafeteria line.

After years of waiting, parents and students and teachers in South Gate are left with the same question they’ve asked for years: When will we get our schools? With all the upheaval at district headquarters, the question is being increasingly transformed into a declaration: We must get our schools.

“The issue is more important than anything else going on, including the politics of the school board and the school district,” said Hector De La Torre, vice mayor of South Gate.

Still, Lindsay is luckier than some others in her neighborhood. Hundreds of students ride buses to distant schools where there is more room.

“I would like to tell her the school is going to be built, but it’s been so long and we’re in the same situation,” said Marcia Rodriguez-Cox, Lindsay’s mother and a longtime parent activist. “I think I’ve run out of patience. I think our waiting time expired a long time ago . . . South Gate is in crisis. That’s it. There’s no other word.”

Hopes were buoyed when the district paid $39 million for the land on which to build an elementary and high school, a 40-acre site made up of 38 industrial lots just west of the Los Angeles River.

But according to preliminary reports, the land is contaminated by hazardous chemicals, including lead, mercury, petroleum and solvents, that will cost millions to clean up.

Students, Teachers, Parents Weigh In

The district’s land acquisition team had been pushing for a July 2001 completion date, while the district’s environmental safety team had sought a delay for further review. The project’s problems have sparked comparisons to the troubled Belmont Learning Complex, and its status is still undecided.

Last week, the problems with the South Gate site were a key factor in the school board’s decision to name former board member Howard Miller as chief executive over all district operations.

Students, teachers and parents in South Gate say what has been missing so far from the discussions are their voices. Many believe the land can and should be cleaned up and the schools built.

“They should meet with the students and figure out what we want,” said Israel Sandoval Jr., a South Gate High School senior and president of the school’s Key Club, a service organization. “I think the new school would be the best alternative.”

They are active students who say they love their school--and see its challenges.

With more than 4,500 students enrolled at the school, just walking from place to place is not easy, Israel said.

In a bid for more space, the school has added bungalows to a portion of the athletic field. Students complain that the former student parking lot has been taken over to make more space.

“Who knows what they want to take next?” Israel said.

Because of the conditions at the schools, the administrators “don’t tolerate a lot of absences or tardies,” said Amber Luis, who wants to be a special education teacher.

Last year, the district bused 431 South Gate students to other schools.

None are taken to schools in the nearby cities of Bell or Huntington Park.

They’re all too crowded, said Gordon Wohlers, the district’s assistant superintendent for policy and research and development. “They’re all on year-round schedules and they’re all basically full. There’s a huge problem in that general southeast area. That’s obviously why we need to build a high school in that neighborhood.”

The current plan calls for a new elementary school and a high school. But population trends--and the middle school’s distinction as the most populous in the district--also point to the need for a new middle school, said Robert Hinojosa, South Gate Middle School principal.

The middle school is run like a small city, Hinojosa said. On any given school day, more than 3,000 students are on campus.

The toughest part, he said, is turning away new students. Many families view South Gate as a thriving, stable community, he said. They buy homes or rent here, only to find that their children cannot attend the local schools.

“It’s painful,” Hinojosa said. “We tell them we’re very, very sorry the school is overflowing. Every classroom and every desk is occupied. There are no extra seats.”

Two years ago, the middle school began accepting sixth-graders, Hinojosa said. The move was made so that kindergarten and first-grade students would not have to be bused to other schools. Moving the sixth-graders freed up space at the elementary schools.

At schools like Tweedy Elementary, physical space remains a cherished commodity.

In the temporary bungalow classrooms, decorated with faux wood paneling, the challenge is teaching in cramped quarters.

Computers, books, a television and overhead projectors compete for precious space. Metal cabinets are on rollers.

Tweedy Principal Cora Watkins would like to see more books in each classroom. But “if you do that, where are you going to put the kids?” Watkins said, surveying a second-grade classroom.

Few Toilets, Many People

The school has one boys’ and one girls’ bathroom for its 800 students. About 500 children are on campus at a time. There are three toilets for a staff of 50.

Behind a bathroom door marked for disabled access is a small room filled with holiday decorations, a podium and other materials. This area doubles as an office for the school psychologist, who works on a laptop computer. To the right is another door leading to a staff bathroom.

The school does not have a computer lab, Watkins said, because there is no secure place to keep computers. There is no multipurpose room, so the school often passes on theatrical performances. Because there is no cafeteria, the students eat outside on lunch benches under a pavilion. Not every child can fit under it.

During one 90-degree day this week, while first- and second-graders munched on burgers, a lunch aide worked to keep them out of the sun. “Stay in the shade,” she said. “Move over here.”

Watkins used her own money to buy a canopy to cover some of the tables.

Getting help from the district has not been easy, said Rodriguez-Cox. She started volunteering at school when Lindsay was in her first years at Tweedy. Her daughter graduated from the elementary school years ago, but she continues to volunteer.

She encouraged other parents to support Proposition BB, hoping it would bring money for construction of the new schools. She has served on committees and met with district officials, including Supt. Ruben Zacarias and Miller, a week before the leadership shake-up that seems to have thrown everything into limbo.

“Every time it seems like we’re making progress,” she said, “something happens.”

In this city where industry has stood next to homes for decades, options for a new site are limited, perhaps impossible without knocking down houses, De La Torre said. Half of the population of the city is under 21 years old, he added.

For now, parents and students are waiting to find out from Miller where their project stands. “We need some answers from the district,” said Rodriguez-Cox. “We’ve been willing to wait and wait. We’ve waited long enough.”