Thread: LAUSD Cuts Building Plans: Enrollments FALL! But....

The taxpayers have been hoodwinked again by the crooked, corrupt City Council and the Mexican Mayor! The $20B Bond to construct 160 NEW schools (for illegals) has been squandered...and there is NOTHING to show for it! Heads should roll over this! Where is that $20 Billion???? And what about all the families who had their homes taken by Eminent Domain to make room for the schools that were never built...and will NEVER be built???????
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L.A. schools cut building plans as enrollment falls

The district does not expect a surplus from its $20 billion in bond issues, however, as costs continue to rise.

By Evelyn Larrubia, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 23, 2008

Declining enrollment has prompted the Los Angeles Unified School District to scale back its $20-billion school construction and remodeling program sought to relieve overcrowding and end involuntary busing.

The building program, which is paid for by four bond issues approved by local voters and state funds, is believed to be the largest public works project in the nation. But since the fall, the school system has canceled plans for 19 new schools and additions to existing campuses in South Gate, Bell, Van Nuys, San Fernando, Sun Valley and central Los Angeles, among other areas, citing new enrollment projections.

On Tuesday, the Board of Education downsized five new schools, eliminating more than 1,000 seats, and last year, the district decided against building seven others, also largely because of decreased enrollment.

"This is major," said board member Marguerite LaMotte, who appeared amazed recently when the board voted to shrink a proposed Maywood high school from about 2,000 classroom seats to 1,200. Even overcrowded nearby Bell High School, which the new school will relieve, has benefited from demographic changes.

Overall, the nation's second-largest school system now serves 694,288 students, down 7% from its peak in 2003 of 747,009 students. The drop stems from years of declining birth rates and increasing housing prices that have pushed poor and working-class families out of many gentrified urban Los Angeles neighborhoods.

A similar decline in students is being felt in other districts in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, a product of the sharp increase in housing prices over the last decade. Compton Unified has eliminated one of two planned elementary schools, partly because of decreased enrollment.

In Los Angeles, reducing the number of new classrooms will not, however, mean that the district will have a surplus of bond money, officials said. Construction costs have nearly tripled to $500 per square foot or higher since 2001, causing a shortfall. The district has cut more than $1 billion from school repair, technology and early education programs to make up the difference.

Guy Mehula, the district's chief facilities executive, has assured the board that the 80,000 seats left to be built still appear necessary. He has repeatedly pointed out that 200,000 children will be learning in portable classrooms even after the construction program is completed. The district expects enrollment numbers to begin to rise again in about five years.

But years of declines have provided ammunition to residents seeking to block new campuses. The downturn was cited by Van Nuys residents, who hired a lawyer to fight a new school that would have required tearing down residences. District officials sent a letter last month to property owners around Cedros Avenue, saying they had scrapped the school because "updated enrollment projections" have made it unnecessary.

Demographics were also among the arguments being used by residents of White House Place Primary Center, west of downtown, who are opposed to losing an unusual ecological housing village to a new elementary school. They said seats are empty at two schools that the new campus is slated to relieve and a third will be giving up students to the massive K-12 campus at the site of the former Ambassador Hotel.

Perhaps the costliest fight over declining enrollment is being waged over what the district calls Central Region Elementary School No. 14, in Echo Park, which has been tied up in court for more than two years. The proposed school was promised to voters in 2005, principally to remove chronically jammed Rosemont Elementary School from a four-track year-round schedule.

About 1,500 students then attended the campus, which has relied on a staggered calendar for more than a decade.

But Rosemont, now down to 964 students, switched back to a traditional September-through-June schedule in the fall. School principal Evaristo Barrett even circulated a flier in the neighborhood recruiting pupils to avoid losing teachers.

"Please tell your neighbors, family and friends that we are looking for additional students," he said in Spanish and English.

Christine Peters leads a vocal opposition group, the Right Site Coalition, which has filed court actions seeking to block construction of the $59-million campus. The district has already spent $26 million buying the 49 residences and six commercial lots on the site at Santa Ynes and Alvarado streets, mitigating contamination and designing the new campus.

"They just don't want to say: 'Oops, we're wrong,' so they're going to push this thing through regardless, just to save face," said Peters, a member of the city's neighborhood council for the area. "Their stated goal was to return schools to single track. It's done. All schools are in traditional calendars in Echo Park."

District officials insist the campus will be needed by the time elementary school enrollment picks up again.

"Enrollment in the neighborhood drops off and goes back up. It always recovers," said Tom Calhoun, central region development manager for the district. "We want to make sure that we plan for the long term."

He also said that Rosemont's capacity will ultimately drop to fewer than 800 students because the district plans to remove classrooms crowding the school's playground.

Calhoun said the proposed campus will make an ideal neighborhood school because 450 students live within a four-block radius and 150 more live across Alvarado Street. Those students now cross under the 101 Freeway to attend Rosemont. Hundreds more pupils expected to attend the 875-student campus could come from more than a mile away.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... ome-center

"Please tell your neighbors, family and friends that we are looking for additional students," he said in Spanish and English. "

This is no surprise coming from the LAUSD. I occassionaly watch the LAUSD Board meetings and continue to be amazed as to what I see. Each and every week, there are countless illegal invaders who address the school board. Of course they require an interpreter to do so because they do not speak a word of English. It's astonishing the demands and threats these people make to the school board each week, while speaking in their native tongue, Spanish. The bravado that comes from these people is simply astonishing.

My father was a teacher in the LAUSD for over thirty years. This school district is an absolute magnet for illegals invaders. The CTA president is named David Sanchez.

His message in the monthly publication of "California Educator" is titled, Si Se Puede! Por Que No?

In English it means It can be done. Why not?

It would seem reasonable to me that the president of the CTA should addressing his message in English, especially since his salary is generated from an organization that is funded by tax dollars from American Citizens. He is in charge of a group of professionals who are responsible for teaching English to the children of this country.

I suggest that ICE park a van at every LAUSD Board meeting to deter illegal immigration. They do not have to do anything other than sit there.

It wouls certainly save the county money and interpreters required for each board meeting. From the looks of these interpreters, they are making very good money, our money....

You want to know where the money went???

Check Villaraigosa's pockets I'm sure that's where most of the money went!!!!

forward to other media outlets reqesting an investigation.

Also forward it to that LA mayoral candidate who we support. ( I forget his name)

Originally Posted by stealthwii

forward to other media outlets reqesting an investigation.

Also forward it to that LA mayoral candidate who we support. ( I forget his name)

This can only be GREAT news for Walter Moore...the mayoral candidate. These crooks got caught with their pants down and their fingers in the cookie jar!

This was the biggest scam to begin with...$20B to build 160 schools when the LAUSD student population is 80% hispanic...half of them illegals!!!! They should have ramped up the old, vacant factories that are sitting empty and vandalized in the heart of downtown LA!!! Why the hell should we build brand new, state of the art schools for illegals and anchor brats who don't even speak English???

It is outrageous!!! And now the money is gone!!!!! Vote NO on Prop 93...at least we can get rid of one of the Evil Twins...Fabian Nunez; and we can get rid of Villaraigosa in another 15 months!!!

It makes me wonder if there were ever any plans to build new schools to begin with

There was an awful lot of money to be stolen by corrupt officials....which it now evidently has been.....and now there is real estate which is no longer needed. Who stands to benefit from deals involving that?

There's a lot of school construction backpedalling across the country. Some enrollment projections were bumped up due to the housing bubble and speculative home construction. Then, when the houses either didn't sell or got foreclosed, that threw off enrollments. In some cases, other neighborhood enrollments swelled as people moved to cheaper homes, but that didn't happen in my neighborhood.

I'm sorry for those still in LA, Mexifornia, you guys really are Ground Zero for all the IA STATS around the country. In other words, what LA goes through, THE WHOLE COUNTRY WILL GO THROUGH. You poor guys have to go through it first. And you poor LA US citizens have to witness and bear the cost of all this. I am truly sad for you.

It's like you are the Sacrificial Lambs. It is only when LA IMPLODES, that the pols will take notice. That is sooooo sad, coz that will be too late.

LA used to be a nice place to go to, but nowadays, it is too scary. Just look at the movies and TV shows depicting LA in the 21st Century. "Crash" comes to mind.