Korenstein Asks Delay of Vote on Reopening

In a surprising turn of events, West San Fernando Valley school board representative Julie Korenstein said Friday that she has requested postponement of a vote to reopen Prairie Street Elementary School after complaints about district plans for the campus.

The Los Angeles Board of Education’s vote had been scheduled for Monday, but the board is expected to go along with the delay, since the school is in Korenstein’s district.

The vote would have been the first board action on reopening any of 19 West Valley campuses closed in the early 1980s because of low enrollment.

Reopening Recommended

The district’s staff recommended reopening the Northridge elementary school to provide classrooms for students from crowded schools.

But Korenstein said she wants to delay the vote until district planners review proposals calling for pairing Prairie with Dearborn Street Elementary School in Northridge.

That plan calls for younger students to go to Dearborn and older ones to Prairie.

Some parents argued that there are enough students living around Prairie for a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school.

Others complained that siblings would be split up if younger children are forced to go to one school and the older students attend another.

‘Parents Not Happy’

“I saw no reason for me to push for reopening until the community was in favor of a plan,” Korenstein said. “I’m not going to ram anything down their throats.

“Parents were not happy with the reconfiguration. I can understand that because they have been through a lot,” she said. “Postponing the vote is a way for me to say to the parents that I hear what they’re saying.”

Korenstein has not suggested a date for the vote on Prairie, but she vowed that the issue would come before the board.

Besides possibly retooling the proposals concerning Prairie, Korenstein said, she will work to expand the district’s magnet program so that it will include an elementary aerospace technology program at the closed Parthenia Street Elementary in Sepulveda.