1990-99: Schools

Claudia Peschiutta

GLENDALE - Not all memories are fond ones.

Glendale schools saw some traumatic events in the 1990s, including the

1993 shooting death of 9-year-old Sang Lee, who was a student at Mark

Keppel Elementary School.

Pam Ellis, a Glendale Board of Education member, was president of

Keppel’s PTA at the time and remembers the pain that followed the

shooting.

“I had children that age. It couldn’t have been closer,” she said.

“Some of the worst things are the ones you remember the most.”

The following year, two students, one from La Crescenta Elementary and

the other from Crescenta Valley High, collapsed and died from natural

causes. Two other Crescenta Valley students and a girl from Glendale High

were killed in car accidents later that year.

Two gang-related shootings at local high schools in 1994 led Glendale

High to close the campus during lunch time.

That year, expulsions more than doubled, with the majority of them due

to weapons violations.

Vic Pallos, a Glendale Unified School District spokesman, said in a

January 1995 interview, “ ’94 was a year when the district clamped down

harder than ever on any kind of violence in and around the campuses.”

Also making news that year was the controversy that arose when a group

promoting AIDS education distributed condoms and pamphlets about sex to

Hoover students.

Proposition 187, which excluded illegal aliens from social services,

inspired local young people to take action and in November 1994, students

from Hoover and Eleanor J. Toll Middle schools protested the measure with

a march on City Hall.

About 300 Glendale High students made their opposition known by

leaving the campus.

The fatal stabbing of Hoover student Tony Petrossian in Brand Park in

May 1995 was another painful chapter in the city’s history. Witnesses

said the 17-year-old boy was trying to protect his friends during a

dispute that that broke out over the purchase of a $50 car stereo

amplifier.

Also in 1995, vandals set fire to a science classroom at Hoover that

destroyed three rooms and damaged 33 others, causing at least $3 million

in damages.

The board of education drew the nation’s attention in March 1996 when

members decided to require students to obtain parent permission to join

campus clubs. In May, the board reversed its stance.

James Brown came to Glendale that year to replace retiring

superintendent Bob Sanchis.

The move, Ellis said, “had to be a decade highlight.”

“We’re very fortunate that he came to Glendale,” she said.

Brown was named the state’s nominee for the 2000 National

Superintendent of the Year in November.

The decade also saw the reopening Valley View Elmentary School and

that of the Clark Junior High School campus as Clark Magnet High School.

One of the biggest stories of the decade and one that continues making

headlines is Measure K, the $186-million school improvement bond approved

by voters in June 1997.

The bond is expanding and modernizing Glendale schools, including

Crescenta Valley High, which broke ground earlier this month on a

$34.5-million campus improvement project.

“We worked our buns off to do this,” said Ellis, whowas on the board

of education when the measure was passed.

After years of student enrollment growth and educational reforms, such

as class-size reduction, campuses have become cramped and the measure

will help reduce some of the strain.