[Yes, I know I’ve been a little quieter of late. That’s because I’ve been busy. Don’t worry… I’ll make up for it eventually…]
The Daily News is reporting today that the Los Angeles Unified board voted unanimously Tuesday to build an $89 million high school at the site of the defunct Granada Hills Community Hospital. The Los Angeles Unified School District bought the 11-acre property at Balboa Boulevard and San Jose Street for $22.5 million in 2004, after the owners closed it in bankrupcy.
This proposed new high school has been a point of controversy in the community. Residents don’t want the new high school because of the traffic it will bring, and because they don’t feel it is necessary. I should note they also resisted plans to spare the hospital and take houses instead for the school. The school board counters that it is needed to relieve overcrowding at Monroe, Polytechnic and San Fernando high schools, and to return those schools to a traditional calendar. The new high school will support 1,215 students.
It is this latter claim that bothers me. To understand why, you need to understand the area. Consider the larger northern and eastern valley. West of I-405, high Schools in this area include Chatsworth, Granada Hills (near Zelzah and Devonshire), Kennedy (near Woodley and Mission), and Monroe (near Nordhoff and Woodley). The new high school would be in the “West of the 405” area, near Balboa and Devonshire. E of the 405 you have San Fernando (up near Laurel Canyon and Fox, if memory serves correct), the new Arleta High School (near Van Nuys and Woodman), the new Panorama High School (on Van Nuys S of Roscoe), Polytechnic (on Roscoe near Laurel Canyon) and farther to the south, Van Nuys High. You can get a rough idea of this area by going to the boundary change list at LAUSD, and clicking on a school such as Monroe.
Here’s the problem. If you look at the map, with the exception of Monroe, all the schools they are talking about the new high school relieving are significantly E of the 405: San Fernando and Polytechnic. It is unclear how a high school in Granada Hills will relieve them of anything. Even for Monroe, it is difficult to see how the relief will come, given where the schools are situated. What helped Polytechnic was Arleta and Panorama High Schools. Arleta will also provide relief to San Fernando. But the school in Granada Hills? No. I can’t see them moving any San Fernando or Polytechnic students there. Perhaps they will offload students from Kennedy and Monroe, thus making a ripple effect. But I think it is a stretch.
I think, if LAUSD really wanted to provide relief to Polytechnic and San Fernando, they should have bought land to the east: perhaps near Hansen Dam.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. My big hope is that it doesn’t affect the boundaries for Granada Hills Charter HS, which is where my daughter will go. But we’re near the western boundary, and that shouldn’t be changing.
