Newsletter
Renovation of Linda Vista
Elementary School Delayed Again
The Pasadena school board has voted to
delay renovation of Linda Vista Elementary school, choosing instead
to divert scarce Measure Y construction funds to two other needy
schools.
Linda Vista’s Bryant Street campus will
remain closed indefinitely, its 430+ students re-routed to Audubon
School in Altadena.
The move to Audubon occurred in Fall
2004. A return to Bryant Street was expected this Fall. With the
school board’s action, the return date will be delayed until Fall
2006.
Much will depend upon when – and if --
the school district completes the sale of an unused tennis club site
owned by the school district adjacent to Pasadena High School.
Escrow is due to close in October. Funds will then be available to
complete work on Linda Vista Elementary.
In the meantime, PUSD president Ed
Honowitz has asked the district’s facility committee to examine the
cost of removing the portable units across from Linda Vista Library
on Bryant St. "These aged and nearly windowless classrooms should be
torn down now," said Honowitz in a letter to the Star-News. "In
addition, we need to clean up the construction fence around the
school."
Ambitious Plans
Renovation plans at LVE originally called for adding a second story
to the main building, replacing four portable buildings, renovating
and expanding the number of classrooms, renovating the auditorium
for ADA access, expanding the playground, and installing new
electrical and plumbing.
But
the $5.5 million in funding earmarked for LVE by passage of the
Measure Y school construction bond in 1997 failed to materialize
because of cost over-runs, inflation, and labor delays at other PUSD
schools that had earlier access to the funds.
Reduced Program
About $3.9 million were finally stitched together last year for a
reduced construction program. LVE summer school was canceled and
renovation work begun.
This
latest fund diversion will allow the district to proceed with
modernization plans at Blair High School and Washington
elementary/middle school.
