School Board OKs South L.A. High School Despite Objections

Over the pleas of some South Los Angeles residents, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to build a school on a contaminated property that will require the demolition of dozens of homes and businesses, and cost millions of dollars to clean.

The site at Slauson Avenue and Hoover Street is tainted with a type of carcinogen commonly called PCBs and other toxic substances, according to studies conducted by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control. It also contains potentially explosive methane deposits from runoff left by an old carwash, and is near railroad tracks.

Several residents who have lived in the neighborhood for decades urged the board to find another site instead of demolishing 45 homes and 10 businesses to build the school. They said the school would displace elderly residents and cause local church membership to dwindle.

“There are sites that can be utilized that would not displace senior citizens such as myself who are widowed,” said resident Esther Fisher. “I will be 70 if the Lord lets me live until February. I don’t want a mortgage.”

The district is legally required to pay fair market prices set by independent appraisers, pay the equivalent of 42 months of rent to tenants and cover relocation costs.

Fisher said she can’t bear to part with her three-bedroom home, which she bought with her late husband in 1965. The couple planted a pine tree and a bed of roses together on the property. Those plants, she said, are irreplaceable.

The new school is part of an aggressive building project to relieve crowding by keeping students in their neighborhoods and returning schools to traditional calendars.

District officials said that they were mindful of residents’ sentiments but that they had considered other sites for the South Los Angeles high school and that this was the most appropriate one.

“It’s a 12-step process to get a school built, and the first steps are always the roughest,” said board member David Tokofsky. “We always try to treat the homeowners with kid gloves.”

The proposed $100-million high school would reduce the number of students enrolled at nearby Manual Arts High School.

It would serve 1,215 students and is scheduled to open in 2008.

In other action, the board also unanimously approved a proposal to consider purchasing a San Pedro naval property that it had rejected six years ago when the site had been available free to the district. The district had applied for the site in 1999 but later withdrew its application instead of competing with the city for ownership.

The district is considering building a $165-million school to relieve crowding at Narbonne and San Pedro high schools. The proposed campus would accommodate 2,000 students.

School officials will study the land, at Western Avenue and Westmont Drive, which formerly served as naval housing and is now vacant, as a “preferred site” for the campus.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn and dozens of residents wearing “No on Western” stickers showed up to protest the decision.

They expressed concern that the school would cause traffic problems and said they would prefer that two private schools be built there.

“The community really feels they have not had enough time to weigh in,” said Hahn, who asked the board to delay the vote and consider other sites.

But board members, including Mike Lansing, expressed support for the San Pedro site, especially because it did not require razing homes as did the South Los Angeles property. Lansing criticized residents for taking a “not in my backyard” attitude about building a school that would serve mostly poor and minority students.

“This is the best site that we could build a school on,” Lansing said.