Parcel for 2 Schools to Be Bought

The Los Angeles Unified School District closed a $25.7-million deal Monday to buy a 40-acre parcel in South Gate for a new high school and middle school to ease severe classroom overcrowding.

The 3,654-student high school and 1,873-student middle school are expected to open by 2005 on the site of a former industrial park. Both campuses will have year-round schedules.

“This is huge news for South Gate,” said Jim McConnell, the district’s chief facilities executive. “Anything we can do to help there is a major accomplishment.”

As it stands, South Gate Middle School is the most crowded in the nation. Designed for about 2,500 students, it has 5,000. Students must wait an average of 45 minutes to buy lunch, McConnell said.

South Gate High School, built in 1932 for about 1,700 students, is attended by 4,634.

In January 2000, the Los Angeles Board of Education abandoned, for the time being, a separate school construction project in South Gate after the discovery of highly contaminated soil on a 40-acre site bought for $65 million.

The cost of a soil cleanup plan was estimated at about $20 million.

“We’re going to clean that land up and keep it,” McConnell said. “This community is so overcrowded I’m sure we’ll need it for future use.”

In the meantime, thousands of South Gate students will continue to be bused to less crowded schools in cities elsewhere, said Alberto Tovar of the district’s facilities division.

“Closing this land deal is a clear step in fulfilling our promise to a community that has been neglected for years,” Tovar said.