Norwalk : Middle School Switch OKd Despite Financial Concerns

School trustees voted this week to create six middle schools in Norwalk and La Mirada despite financial concerns and some parent complaints.

The vote was 5 to 2 for a plan that would open two former campuses as middle schools and convert four elementary schools.

Starting in September, 1993, the middle schools would serve students in grades six through eight in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District. Pupils currently attend elementary school through seventh grade and then enter high school.

“Those (eighth-graders) do not belong on the high school campus,” board member Lupe Flores-McClintock said. “I’m getting very frustrated at having to expel kids” who have trouble adjusting. “I know this is a step in the right direction.”

Board members Jesse Luera and Rudy Bermudez, who voted against the proposal, criticized the timing of the changeover. “There’s not one board member who can tell you where this money is going to come from,” Bermudez said. “I’m for middle schools. We need them in our district. . . . What we don’t need is this district going bankrupt.”

Officials estimate the conversion will cost about $2 million in one-time expenses and about $900,000 a year in recurring expenses.

At recent meetings, few parents questioned the rationale for middle schools. Dozens have criticized the particulars, including the selection of which schools to convert and the costs of doing so.

The converted elementary schools will be Waite, Hargitt and Lampton in Norwalk and Hutchinson in La Mirada. The reopened campuses will be Corvallis School in Norwalk and Benton School in La Mirada. The former junior high schools were closed when enrollment declined in the late 1970s.