Halfway through its second year of occupying portable classrooms on an asphalt lot behind Farragut Elementary, the status of Culver Park Continuation High School is slightly clearer this afternoon.
School District Supt. David LaRose said the present location probably will hold for two or three more years.
To the question of whether the Culver Park campus is entrenched on the lip of gentle Ballona Creek for the short or longer term, Mr. LaRose said:
“Absolutely, positively, the short term. Our interest in a permanent space for Culver Park High School is and always has been a priority.
“In our process, we are being thoughtful and intentional about, we don’t make short-term solutions or explore options that create another need in the immediate future for another move.
“That doesn’t serve anybody well.”
Culver Park’s case is under a microscope, Mr. LaRose says, and its ultimate destination is linked to a necklace of variables.
“We need to have a long-range vision of what (their future) might be. That is critical as we move forward and assess our capital needs. One of our priorities needs to be a future home for Culver Park.”
When the previously unknown portable campus suddenly and unpopularly was shifted from its decades-long gardenlike existence inside El Marino Language Immersion School a year ago last summer, its future was as cloudy as an endless rain.
“The future location of Culver Park High School needs to take precedence over many other priorities as far as I am concerned,” Mr. LaRose said.
The Adult School property, adjacent to the Julian Dixon Library, once considered a logical landing place. It, however, long since has been off the list, not least because of conflicting environmental regulations governing secondary schools and adult campuses.
