KOREAN COMMUNITY MOVING FARTHER NORTH.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Gina Lee liked living in Glendale until friends and relatives told her it was better a few miles north in the foothills.

They told her the schools there were the best in the Glendale Unified School District and there was an established Korean community with churches and stores.

So five years ago, Lee and her husband moved their three children to La Canada Flintridge, and now they attend Mountain Avenue Elementary - one of the top three performing schools in the Glendale district.

``My relatives were living in this area and Korean people like this area more,'' said Lee, 39. The work commute to downtown was also a convenient one for her husband.

``The schools are much better than in south Glendale and I heard the same things from friends, so we moved here,'' she said.

The Lees are part of the Glendale area's steadily growing Korean population, which is creating a presence particularly in the La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge communities.

As other minority groups continue to level off and decline in the Glendale school district, Koreans are bucking that trend - prompting education officials to prepare for them as they begin to make up more and more of the school-age population.

Now, more than 10 percent - or 2,977 - of the Glendale district's approximately 29,000 students are Korean, compared with 5 percent in 1990, said Joanna Junge, director of special projects and intercultural education. She expects the trend to continue over the next few years.

``Because Korean families are moving in at a very high rate compared to other families from other groups, as the district population declines, the Korean population will increase,'' Junge said. ``Everyone else is buying out of the district and the new immigrants generally can't afford to come in, but the Koreans generally can.''

To meet that population's needs, the district is actively seeking more Korean translators, Korean teachers, principals and instructional assistants, Junge said.

District officials also are encouraging their Korean-speaking teachers to get bilingual credentials to support students in their primary language and to communicate better with parents.

Last year, the district started a collaboration with a Korean cultural organization, sending their teachers to seminars where they can learn more about Korean culture, history and language.

This year, Gina Lee is the president of the Korean Mothers Group at Mountain Avenue Elementary. The group was created about six years ago to get Korean mothers, many of whom don't speak English very well, to get involved with the school.

Lee said 15 percent of Mountain's population is Korean with more than 80 Korean families sending their kids to the school. About 20 mothers attend the meetings.

District officials compare the growth of the Korean community - although not as dramatic - to the booming growth of the Armenian population in Glendale in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Armenian explosion forced the school district to scramble to address the needs of the minority group.

``It's the same dynamic as the Armenian community,'' Junge said. ``There's a strong Korean community established there and a lot of services so it's drawing more Koreans there.''

Glendale and particularly La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge are very attractive communities for Korean-Americans, said Charles Kim, executive director of the Korean American Coalition.

The communities are close to Koreatown, where many work, but more importantly, they have high-quality school districts.

Census figures show the population of the city of Glendale includes 12,500 Koreans - fourth highest in the nation after Los Angeles, New York and Honolulu - and is up 46 percent from 1990, Kim said.

The La Crescenta and Montrose area has 2,538 Koreans, 66.5 percent up from 1990, and the city of La Canada Flintridge has 2,226 Koreans, up 71.2 percent from 1990.

``Wherever you see a heavy influx of Korean-Americans, they must have a good school district,'' Kim said. ``To Korean parents, their kids' education is No. 1, the most important thing. They will do everything to invest in their kids' education.''

Real estate brokers are actively promoting the La Crescenta area and word-of-mouth continues to draw families to the foothills, Kim said.

In Korea, Glendale's schools are actively promoted, prompting many parents to send their kids to live with relatives in the Glendale area to attend their schools - so-called ``parachute kids,'' Kim said.

``I think this is an image issue, a status issue,'' Kim said. ``The city's image is good, it has a good school district, it's close to Koreatown and you hear from the people who live there who love the area.''

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Gina Lee, with sons John, 6, and Joshua, 9, moved from Glendale to La Canada Flintridge five years ago.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer