Maywood activists' fight against new school costs L.A. Unified $20 million
Because residents don't want a campus that would displace hundreds, the school district has forfeited state funds. The school will be built anyway, officials say.
Some say this small city's struggle to block construction of a high school may be a losing battle, but a tenacious group of Maywood activists has managed to hit the Los Angeles Unified School District where it hurts -- in the wallet.
By calling on a very powerful friend in Sacramento and organizing hundreds of families who would have to vacate their homes and apartments to make way for the proposed school, Maywood officials succeeded recently in depriving L.A. Unified of $20 million in state matching funds. And that figure could grow.
"How does that old saying go? We may have won the battle, but we haven't won the war," said Tere Nuñez, one of the affected residents and mother of four.
At issue is the construction of South Region High School No. 8. The planned $141-million school in southeast Los Angeles County is intended to relieve overcrowding at Bell High School and would require the demolition of 10 single-family homes and 29 multifamily homes and apartment buildings. In all, more than 100 families would be displaced, according to the district.
Among them is Maywood City Councilman Edward Valera. He and others claim that L.A. Unified officials ignored better sites.
But school officials deny that. They say other potential sites were either contaminated or posed other
By calling on a very powerful friend in Sacramento and organizing hundreds of families who would have to vacate their homes and apartments to make way for the proposed school, Maywood officials succeeded recently in depriving L.A. Unified of $20 million in state matching funds. And that figure could grow.
"How does that old saying go? We may have won the battle, but we haven't won the war," said Tere Nuñez, one of the affected residents and mother of four.
At issue is the construction of South Region High School No. 8. The planned $141-million school in southeast Los Angeles County is intended to relieve overcrowding at Bell High School and would require the demolition of 10 single-family homes and 29 multifamily homes and apartment buildings. In all, more than 100 families would be displaced, according to the district.
Among them is Maywood City Councilman Edward Valera. He and others claim that L.A. Unified officials ignored better sites.
But school officials deny that. They say other potential sites were either contaminated or posed other
