District to Begin Work on Two New Schools

Los Angeles school officials are about to break ground on two new schools--an elementary school in Van Nuys and a primary center in Bell--that will be the first buildings to be completed in the district in five years, Supt. Roy Romer said Wednesday.

The buildings, which are expected to be opened late next year, will be the first of seven new schools the district plans to start work on this year, Romer said, declaring that the Los Angeles Unified School District is entering “a new era of competence and capacity.”

Work on the 716-student elementary school in Van Nuys and the 353-student K-3 primary center in Bell is expected to begin within a few weeks. The construction underlines the effectiveness of recent reforms and management shake-ups in the beleaguered district, Romer said.

The construction also is a symbol of hope for a school system that faces huge obstacles in obtaining environmental clearances and community acceptance for potential sites in neighborhoods that need them most.

Overall, said Robert Buxbaum, the district’s interim facilities executive, “we’ve identified close to 90 sites for the 210 schools we think we have to build over the next six years.”

“When you start under a cloud with a bad reputation, people lose hope for change until they start seeing shovels hitting the dirt,” Buxbaum said. “They’re going to start seeing just that in August in communities that badly need new schools.”

Romer added: “The message all this activity is giving out is this--we have a new team on board that can actually deliver schools. . . . We’ve made a turnaround in our capacity to do competent work.”

Two more school construction projects, both primary centers in the Hollywood area, are going out to bid in August. In September, bids will go out for three elementary schools in Bell, Huntington Park and downtown.

Meanwhile, Romer said, the district has started searching for an architect to convert its downtown headquarters at 450 N. Grand Ave. into a high school. Architects are being sought for six potential high school sites.

“Next week,” he said, “we plan to hire someone to help us relocate headquarters.”

For the densely populated low-income communities of southeast Los Angeles, the construction activity cannot come too soon. In addition to the three southeastern schools where work is slated to get underway in the next couple of months, South Gate is scheduled to get a new high school and middle school and an elementary school to replace one shut down in 1989 because of toxic contamination.

“We’ve been waiting and waiting for the district to build something,” said Jose Sigala, district director for Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh (D-Cudahy).

“They’ve already started clearing the brush from a site on the border of Bell and Cudahy, which is very exciting,” Sigala said. “When people see hammers flying and cement being poured, they’re going to be happy, because it means their kids may not be bused or have to go to class in the cafeteria.

“The sad part,” he said, “is that many of these new schools were maxed out, in terms of capacity, even before they were built.”

“We’ve been on year-round school schedules for 22 years, and our population continues to grow,” said Edie Lopez, a consultant to the cities of Bell and Cudahy.

In the San Fernando Valley, the new construction will be welcome, said school board member Julie Korenstein, whose district includes the new Van Nuys elementary school. “We have extreme overcrowding,” Korenstein said. “Now, we’re going to hear the sound of construction, then we’re going to open the doors of a new school for all the little children. Then we’re going to celebrate with apple juice and cookies.”

Separately, the district has launched a large-scale program to lease commercial space to house students quickly. The district has an enormous overcrowding problem, with about a third of its schools on year-round calendars, including 18 of 49 high schools. Nine schools have more than 1,000 students per counselor.

In May, district officials reported to the school board that they faced a shortage of 2,000 to 5,000 seats in a few years, even under the most optimistic scenarios.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Preliminary Name Location Capacity 1. Van Nuys Elementary 6700 Columbus Ave. 716 2. Otis Elementary 2401 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 864 3. Belmont Hollywood No. 3* 2300 W. 7th St., L.A. 353 4. Belmont Hollywood No. 2* 310 S. Lafayette Park Pl., L.A. 353 5. Huntington Pk. Elem. No. 3 2660 E. 57th St. 798 6. Bell Elementary No. 3 Live Oak St./Wilcox Ave. 1,005 7. Bell No. 3* Live Oak St./Wilcox Ave. 353 *

*These schools are primary centers, which are usually kindergarten through second grade,

and offer an intense focus on reading.

Source: LAUSD