WestchesterParents

Hundreds of family members, kids and church members came out on Sunday, December 2nd to participate in the Westchester Lutheran School (pre-K to 8) groundbreaking that began the long awaited renovation of the school.

The 530 student school will be replacing its tiny 1950’s style bungalows with new classrooms and educational facilities totaling 57,090 square feet. Included in the project will be a multi-purpose gymnasium and performance space, library, computer labs.

The school originally broke ground on May 14th, 1950 and began operating the following September.  The first class consisted of 14 kindergarten students taught by Miss Laura Kruse of Inglewood. In three years, the enrollment grew to 104 students – grades K-4 and in 1955 another building was added for seven classrooms. In 1975 a middle school was established that added grades 7 and 8.  

Posted on December 9th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: OUR SCHOOLS, PAROCHIAL & PRIVATE, WPDR HISTORY
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Congratulations to Westchester Lutheran School. Three years is too long but your school finally received its permit to begin its long overdue renovation.  Many of your kids didn’t get the opportunity to sit in some brand new classrooms and that is because of the long and very difficult road dealing with a city bureaucracy that is rarely friendly to families.

Private and parochial schools are always singled out in this city to meet conditions that commercial interests and public schools never have to meet in order to build, renovate or expand.

When a public school district wants to increase the enrollment at a school to mitigate overcrowding at schools in other communities, they simply do it. No public comment, no expensive law firms, no onerous conditions such as car pooling for kindergartners or million dollar turnout lanes to access to parking lot.  When a supermarket or large employer wants to build or increase the size of a commercial site..  Carpooling is an incentive, not a condition.

Westchester Lutheran was committed to doing what is right for our communities families and they have set a precedent for other private and parochial schools in Los Angeles.

Special thanks to the Neighborhood Council of Westchester/Playa del Rey who took an early stand in supporting the schools renovation, Robert Tyler of Advocates for Faith and Freedom for protecting the schools religious freedom (one of the cities most incredible conditions was to require that it change to a secular curriculum!), to Fred and Sandra Masted who probably thought that they would have retired by now, to Corinne who spearheaded the legal challenges (Your much better than LW), to Jay and the other past and current school parents who persevered for the last three years.

Time to get to work.

Posted on September 4th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: OUR SCHOOLS, PAROCHIAL & PRIVATE
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Looking over some old files I ran across this old article I wrote back in 2002 for Westchesterkids.org web site. Wow 5 years ago. Even longer when I consider my correspondense to former LAUSD Board member Valerie Fields. I wrote this when Dana Perryman was the principal, Carol Dodd was the local district superintendent, there was no WPEF back then. It was the era of ideas like LEARN and school based management that never came to fruition.  I thought it would be a good idea to post this as a snapshot of Westchester/Playa del Rey Schools back in 1997-2002. What’s changed since then… what’s still the same.

WestchesterKids on the LAUSD and in particular Westchester High School

“We would like the Westchester community to continue to believe that this is their school.. There are a lot of young children in the area and we want them to send their children here” Ms. Dana Perryman – Principal, Westchester High School

Like many parents here tonight our most anxious moments began shortly after we made a promise. Like our parents before us and as we watched our children playing, we quietly promised them that we would always be there and to provide them with all of the necessities they will need to be successful in life. Then we begin to look at their educational options and like a cold shower we realized how difficult the LAUSD and its factions is going to make it for us to keep that promise.

Our travels really began much earlier, even before we had our first child. We were aware of the constant battering that the LAUSD was taking in the television news and the papers. But we felt obligated to research our options objectively and with open mindedness. [Read more →]

Posted on July 10th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: ORVILLE WRIGHT MS, OUR SCHOOLS, PAROCHIAL & PRIVATE, WESTCHESTER HS
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