New high school a boon for Eastside

The Los Angeles Unified School District broke ground Wednesday on a new high school on the Eastside, the first to be built in the area in 85 years. About 500 Boyle Heights-area parents, students, school district and civic leaders celebrated construction of the school with a Mexican breakfast, trumpets and balloons.

Residents and officials rejoiced that the new school would provide much-needed relief to overcrowded Roosevelt High School, which is currently the only regular Los Angeles Unified high school in the area.

“I’m born and raised in Boyle Heights, and it’s been like forever since we’ve had a new school,” said Mary Najera, 50. “It’s a big step and a big step in the right direction.”

As area elementary students entertained the crowd with a musical performance, Maria Diaz glowed with enthusiasm as she talked about her daughter Angelica, a fifth-grader who is eager to attend the $71.4-million school, slated to open in fall 2009.

“At the time, I was like, ‘Why is she so excited?’ It’s so far away,” Diaz said. But then the Boyle Heights resident remembered her daughter hearing about her older brother’s frustrations with overcrowding at Roosevelt. The then-senior wasn’t able to enroll in Advanced Placement French last year because it wasn’t offered in his semester track.

Roosevelt has three semester tracks and runs year round to accommodate its nearly 5,000 students; officials said the school was built for only 2,000 students.

But Los Angeles Unified Supt. David L. Brewer said that although providing relief to Roosevelt is significant, what’s more important is the school’s central location in Boyle Heights.

“It becomes an academic symbol right here in the community,” said Brewer, who earlier addressed the predominantly Latino crowd with a few sentences in Spanish. He said he’s most excited about the science emphasis the campus will have.

The school, which will have 38 classrooms with 1,026 seats, was approved after about five years of planning and consideration of 37 sites. The school district, in cooperation with area housing and transportation agencies, settled on a 5.4-acre site at 1st Street and Mission Road, which is about two miles east of downtown.

The school -- which will include a parent center, gymnasium and underground parking -- is surrounded by residential complexes and in front of a community center. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is building a Metro Gold Line stop in front of the school, which is helpful in a community that relies heavily on public transportation.

“This is a beautiful example when a community takes leadership in the development of its education,” school board member Monica Garcia told the crowd, which included students who will be part of the school’s freshman class. “We want to see you go to college.”

The school, which has yet to be named, is the first of three to be built on the Eastside under the district’s $19.3-billion school construction effort.

The second school is scheduled to open in 2010 and will accommodate 2,322 students, and the third, to open in 2012, will serve 1,539 students, said Ron Bagel, the school district’s director of real estate.

Under the school construction program, more than 145 schools will be built by 2012. To date, the district has completed 65 new schools.

angie.green@latimes.com