CAT'S PURR

Consortium initiates major changes in North Long Beach

Thursday, February 10, 2011 By Bria Newman and Eric Nao

On Thursday, January 13, community and Long Beach Unified School District officials gathered, along with representatives with the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, in the Jordan Media Center to announce “. . . a major renovation of Jordan High School, scheduled for completion in 2015.” The new 21 st century campus will be “. . . a centerpiece for revitalization of the larger North Long Beach area.” LBUSD Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser announced the kickoff of The North Long Beach Initiative, “ . . . a six-month planning effort to address the educational and social issues of students and their families.” Mayor Bob Foster, Steinhauser, and school administrators were among many community leaders in attendance to discuss the planning stage to renovate the campus and community. “I think the Initiative is a great opportunity for the school, parents, and students,” says Mr. Orlando Hardy, Assistant Principal Measure K, a $1.2 billion school bond approved by voters in 2008, will fund this project. $105 million, approximately 10% of the bond issue, will be dedicated to the new campus. The Initiative is borne out of the data collected by LBUSD that shows North Long Beach as a whole serves 14,500 students. Of that total 3,600 of them attend Jordan, where 90 percent are African-American or Latino and, as a group, are less likely to be English-proficient and not able to meet state-wide grade level standards as opposed to students in other parts of the Long Beach Unified School District. In North Long Beach alone, English Language Learners are 30% of the community compared to the 22% in the school district itself, and 93% of North Long Beach students qualify for free reduced lunch because of low-income. Steinhauser feels that although North Long Beach students have made great strides in recent years, the North Long Beach Initiative will guide public policy on increasing students’ academic and social success. During the first week of February, planning meetings were held on a variety of North Long Beach campuses to spread the word and receive feedback from the community. According to lbschools.net, Superintendent Steinhauser commented, “In the coming weeks and months, our school district, in collaboration with the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, will conduct community surveys and a series of forums and focus groups to determine the greatest challenges and most-needed resources in North Long Beach.”