Local News in Brief : $2.1-Million Contract on School Project OKd

In the latest effort by Glendale school officials to accommodate the rising enrollment of recent years, the Glendale school board this week approved a contract with an architect to design and construct a 12-classroom addition at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School.

Charles Walton Associates of Glendale is scheduled to begin work on the $2.1-million addition immediately. The addition will replace portable classrooms at the site and is scheduled to be completed by September, 1990.

The addition to Jefferson is one of many measures and construction projects planned by the district to address school growth. By 1990, 53 other new classrooms are scheduled to be completed at other district schools, according to a report presented to the school board Tuesday. And 12 new portable trailers have been installed at Glendale elementary schools this fall, district spokesman Vic Pallos said.

Enrollment in Glendale schools has increased 7% since September, 1987, according to the district report. Nine elementary schools in the southern part of the district have been hardest hit, with their enrollments increasing by 20.9% in the past two years, the report said.

Of 7,057 students enrolled at those nine schools, 2,767 or 39.2% are being taught in portable classrooms, according to the report. Pallos said that even when the 65 new classrooms are completed, 11.6% of those students will be taught in portable classrooms.

In addition to the construction at Jefferson, the district is building a 20-classroom building at Horace Mann Elementary, 12 new classrooms at John Marshall Elementary, and 21 new classrooms at John Muir Elementary.