School Survives Hard Knocks

Lined up Tuesday morning with his second-grade class on the blacktop playground, Marcell Harris let his eyes sweep over the campus of the spanking new elementary school and pronounced it cool.

“It’s got a big library,” said Marcell, 7, clutching a paper that bore his teacher’s name and his classroom number. “It’s just right.”

It was the first-ever first day of classes at Jefferson New Elementary School No. 2, or “Jeff 2.” That is how the school in South Los Angeles will be known until a committee of parents, educators and community representatives can work through the Los Angeles Unified School District’s elaborate ritual to arrive at a permanent name.

For Jeff 2, the first day was a long time coming. Construction started in 1995, but the contractor went out of business within a year, leaving the project dormant for the next seven years. By the time work resumed with a new builder, Bernard Bros., in 2002, the project had become another symbol of L.A. Unified’s then-troubled building program.

Delays and cost overruns initially plagued projects made possible by 1997’s Proposition BB, the first of three voter-approved, local school construction bond measures in recent years.

And there was the debacle over the still-unfinished Belmont Learning Complex -- renamed Vista Hermosa -- just west of downtown Los Angeles, where the price tag has climbed to $286 million, mainly because the site is an old oil field and an earthquake fault was recently discovered there.

In 2001, district officials brought in a new team experienced in building public works projects and is now on track to construct 160 schools by 2012.

Jeff 2 is among 17 that are opening this year and one of three that welcomed its first students Tuesday.

Belmont Hollywood New Elementary School No. 1 opened its doors on the former site of the Otis Art Institute, at the edge of MacArthur Park. It enables neighborhood youngsters to give up their long bus rides to less crowded schools and attend classes close to home. The other campus debuting Tuesday was Huntington Park New Elementary School No. 7.

By 7:30 a.m., the streets leading to Jeff 2, a block off Central Avenue, not far from Jefferson High School, were filled with families walking their youngsters to campus. Big posters listing class assignments hung on the teal front fence of the $20-million, 39-classroom campus, and samples of the just-chosen school uniforms -- khaki pants or skirts with dark green tops -- were displayed on the gate.

“Welcome to the first day of Jeff 2,” said Principal Robert Cordova Jr., who had spent five hectic months readying the campus. Using a microphone and speaking in English and Spanish, he greeted the kindergarten-through-fifth-grade students before sending them off to class. Then he spoke with their parents and helped with the long line of families applying for the federally subsidized school lunch program.

Fourth-grader Fanny Montoya said she would miss Trinity Street, her old school, one of three that Jeff 2 will help relieve of overcrowding and enable to return to a full 180-day school calendar.

“But my mom said she thinks I will like this school, because it’s very pretty and new,” Fanny said as she waited to get her first look at her second-floor classroom.

Fifth-grader Jennifer Garcia admitted to a case of nerves before meeting her new teacher. And she worried that “some kids might write on the walls.”

“I would tell them not to do that,” she said, “because the school is brand new.”

A few yards away, Cynthia and Derringer Dillingham watched as their son, Dillon, lined up with his fifth-grade class.

“He misses Wadsworth” Avenue Elementary School nearby, his mother said, “but he’s already finding some of his friends from there.

“And this is a really nice school.”