DISPUTED SCHOOL PLAN REDRAWN IN VAN NUYS.

Byline: David R. Baker Staff Writer

Bowing to pressure from neighbors, Los Angeles education officials have redesigned a proposed Van Nuys elementary campus so it won't clog streets with traffic.

``Not everyone's going to be happy, but I think (district officials) have addressed just about everything they can,'' said Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Association.

School officials said they expect work to proceed on the school, scheduled to open in fall 2001.

The redesign hasn't stilled all criticism of the school, proposed at the corner of Lemay Street and Columbus Avenue near a continuation high school. Some neighbors remain convinced that their already busy streets will fill up each morning with parents' minivans.

In a neighborhood without many sidewalks, they also worry about kids who will walk to school. And they question the wisdom of building an elementary school by a school for teen-agers near the intersection.

But several neighbors said negotiations have at least yielded a plan they can live with.

Such negotiations may soon become commonplace throughout Los Angeles. District officials say about 100 schools need to be built throughout the city during the next 10 years.

The proposed $8.5 million elementary school on four acres in Van Nuys will ease crowding at four neighboring schools. For lack of room, 190 children must be bused to other locations each day from one of the four, Van Nuys Elementary. Buses must transport 112 away from Valerio Street School.

Operating on a year-round schedule, the proposed school will serve more than 600 children each year - 460 on campus and the rest on their break at any given time. But even one new school will not abolish the need for busing in the area, school officials said.

``At this point, it will start out full,'' Gordon Wohlers, the district's assistant superintendent of policy research and development, said about the proposed school.

The sheer numbers of students fueled much of the neighborhood's opposition to another school. Nearby Vanowen Street is already jammed during the morning commute, Schultz said.

``If you could (avoid it), you wouldn't want to add anything to it,'' he said.

The problem is compounded, neighbors said, by the lack of sidewalks on many blocks. Neighbors fear that with so many cars streaming to and from the school, children walking along the street's edge could be in danger.

``Our fear is that nothing will get done until something dramatic happens, which is exactly what we're trying to avoid,'' said Shain Beyer, who lives less than a block away from the proposed school.

City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski sponsored a series of meetings in the spring among neighbors, school officials and representatives of the city's Transportation Department.

The redesign carves out a turn-around lane for cars on the school property. The lane will open onto Columbus near the intersection with Lemay.

Columbus will be widened along that stretch to add a lane in the street, Wohlers said, and builders also might add a turn-out area on Vanowen.

While residents favor the changes from an earlier design, they want more work done to improve safety on nearby streets. Neighbors have petitioned for the Transportation Department to put speed bumps on Kittridge Street between Sepulveda Boulevard and Kester Avenue and on Columbus between Lemay and Victory Boulevard, Beyer said. The petition is being studied, city officials said.

Some residents also question whether students from Will Rogers High School, the continuation school on Lemay Street, will mix well with elementary children. Beyer praised the high school's principal, but noted that may of the students at Will Rogers are there because they had problems in other high schools.

``We have voiced that concern repeatedly with the district,'' Beyer said. ``But that was removed from the conversation immediately.''

School board member Julie Korenstein, who represents the area and attended some of the community meetings, said she is working on a plan to make the schools compatible, but declined to discuss details.

``I share the community's concerns, and I'm looking into some way to solve them,'' she said.

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Map: Proposed new school site