Proposal to Convert School Protested

About 1,000 protesters marched on Los Angeles school headquarters Thursday to demand that interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines drop a plan to convert Evans Community Adult School into a senior high.

Students carrying placards walked from the downtown school where hundreds of thousands of new immigrants have learned English and basic subjects, briefly tying up traffic on Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Evans alumnus Thuzar Win, a Myanmar native. “Because of Evans, I have accomplished many things.”

The rally was a reaction to last week’s announcement by the district’s chief operating officer, Howard Miller, that he was considering Evans and four other sites to replace the scuttled Belmont Learning Complex. The list also includes the Ambassador Hotel and the current district headquarters.

The Board of Education has decided not to open the half-completed high school because of environmental problems.

Later Thursday, at a meeting of the board’s facilities committee, Miller announced three more proposed sites, including a 16-acre section of the parking lot at Dodger stadium.

Miller said he had talked to Dodger officials. Dodger officials said they would not comment until they could evaluate the proposal.

Other added sites are the United Parcel Service facility downtown and the offices of Eller Media near Washington Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.

In all, the eight sites would provide 12,000 new seats. Miller said he would have other sites to bring the total to 15,000 when he returns with a final proposal by March 23.

The capacity of potential school sites far exceeds what would be needed to replace Belmont, providing a cushion in case of problems and a bonus to relieve enrollment pressure at surrounding schools, Miller said.

Board members responded favorably, but the swift reaction of the Evans community illustrated the potential for any site to hit resistance.

Evans serves about 10,000 students, including 1,000 working on high school degrees, in a nearly round-the-clock schedule and has become a symbol of advancement for Los Angeles immigrants. Students from the heavily immigrant central city area find it convenient to reach by foot, bicycle and bus.

Miller did not answer the demonstrators directly, but he told the facilities committee that he believes a proposed site on Wilshire Boulevard would be better for the adult program.

Demographic studies have shown, for example, that more Evans students live near the proposed site than near the current campus. Also, he said, the Wilshire site is close to more transit lines.

“We’re not wiping out Evans,” Miller said. “We’re moving the facility.”

District officials said the proposal would return Evans nearly to its original location. There was a protest when the campus was moved to its current site in the 1970s, said district spokeswoman Stephanie Brady.

Even committee chairman David Tokofsky, who had evoked cheers from the protesters by pledging his opposition to moving Evans, seemed appeased by Miller’s arguments.

If the district presses ahead with the move, Tokofsky said, it should pursue establishment of an Evans II.