Lynwood Schools : District OKs $14,000 Study on Ability to Build School

The Lynwood Unified school board agreed Tuesday to spend $14,000 to survey residents about their ability and willingness to fund a new high school.

Some questioned the spending of thousands of dollars on a study when the district cannot afford construction costs for the $95-million project.

“We’re having money problems,” said Wendy Bleadsoe, a district secretary and vice president of the California School Employees Assn. “How can we afford to spend $14,000 to do some research?”

But board members defended the study by pointing to a state law that requires the district to prove its need for the school and to show whether it can fund it through local bonds.

The current Lynwood High School, built in 1940 for 1,500 students, enrolls more than 3,000. Trailers and portable classrooms house the overflow.

Parents, students and educators agree that the district needs a new school, but construction of the proposed facility has been delayed for years by a legal fight over the land. Although the district prevailed in court last year, the project remains in limbo until the state can fund construction costs.

“We need to come together to build a high school,” said board President Joe T. Battle. “We have to show the state that we don’t have the resources.”