2 School Sites Are Chosen in the Valley

The Los Angeles Unified School District has chosen sites in the San Fernando Valley for two new high schools, one where the closed Granada Hills Community Hospital now sits, the other adjacent to the West Valley Occupational Center in Woodland Hills.

Together, the projects, which will serve about 2,000 students, will occupy land already owned by the district and will not require relocating families, district officials said.

“Finding sites is always hard,” said Glenn Gritzner, special assistant to district Supt. Roy Romer. “There’s not a lot of empty land, and when there is, it’s often environmentally challenged.”

The search for appropriate sites is also limited geographically, Gritzner said, since the district needs to build in the areas where the youngsters are.

Residents of both neighborhoods had expressed concern that the school district might take their homes, using eminent domain.

And while that worry has been allayed, residents continue to have concerns about both sites.

In Granada Hills, many residents had hoped another health organization would resurrect the hospital.

“Now there are people saying, ‘If the district builds here, we’ll lose our chance for good,’ ” Gritzner said.

According to Edwin Van Ginkel, the district’s senior development manager, the new high school in Granada Hills will accommodate 1,215 students and cost about $76 million.

The district has heard from neighbors of the planned Woodland Hills project that they fear a new school will increase already heavy traffic in the area, especially at Winnetka Avenue and Victory Boulevard.

And staff and students at the West Valley Occupational Center have expressed concern that the district’s planned vocational academy for the site will encroach on the existing campus and its programs.

Van Ginkel said the district had responded to initial concerns about the Woodland Hills project by paring it, reducing the projected enrollment from 1,400 students to about 800.

The new academy will offer vocational courses and classes that lead to a high school diploma.

Van Ginkel said the project was originally budgeted at $87 million but would be reduced proportionately to reflect its smaller enrollment.

The Board of Education is expected to approve the site selections this month.

“But it’s not like once the board approves the sites, we come in with bulldozers and get going,” Gritzner said.

School officials point out that the sites have not yet been vetted for environmental impacts and that the schools have yet to be designed.

They predict that it will be four years before the new high schools open their doors.