Academy School at CSUN

* A joint Los Angeles Unified School District / Cal State Northridge proposal is moving ahead to develop a small academy high school on the CSUN campus. The planned school would serve local San Fernando Valley students, with a focus on preparing them for college and teaching careers.

With a planned enrollment of 800 students at any one time (1,200 total based on a year-round schedule), the academy high school would help meet the significant need for new high school classrooms in the Valley and lessen local overcrowding. The project is undergoing an environmental impact report process that should conclude later this year. Plans call for a construction start in 2002 and school completion by 2004.

The project would be the first new LAUSD high school in the Valley in nearly 30 years, and the only LAUSD high school on a university campus.

Since the project was proposed last May, it has had numerous public hearings and drawn significant support, including favorable newspaper editorials and endorsements from organizations such as the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., Los Angeles Board of Education and Cal State Board of Trustees.

In exchange for providing university property for the high school, CSUN would obtain from LAUSD the nearby eight-acre Prairie Street School site. CSUN plans to use the site to provide much-needed additional on-campus parking.

The academy high school project is a good one in many respects. The community would get a high-quality, small-enrollment high school. CSUN would get much-needed extra parking. And local students attending the school would get special access to CSUN’s university facilities and programs.

JOHN CHANDLER

CSUN Public Affairs Director

* The community surrounding CSUN has over the past year expressed opposition to the academy high school that is proposed to be built on CSUN property on Zelzah Avenue in exchange for tearing down an elementary school, also on Zelzah, not half a mile away.

This opposition has been expressed to the the president of the college, to the LAUSD, to the California State University chancellor, to our local politicians, to the news media and before the LAUSD board downtown at their headquarters.

In spite of the approximately six United Northridge Homeowner Assns. that have come forth [with] reasons as to why it is opposed, CSUN and LAUSD have plowed ahead, ignoring our input and giving lip service to our attendance at meetings.

We asked the press to attend these meetings. They have neglected to express the community’s displeasure with the plan. It is imperative to print what is being planned around a college community, especially when there is unified opposition to the current proposed plan.

The plan directly affects the community--negatively--surrounding the CSUN campus, and it is highly opposed in the neighborhood.

ANITA SANTOSPIRITO

Northridge