Press "Enter" to skip to content

Parents Raise Concerns Over Possible Closure of Worthington School

Dozens of parents, students and teachers gathered outside of Worthington Elementary worried that the Inglewood Unified School District has their school next on the chopping block for closure.

“We are here to demand that he keep our school open,” said Victoria Preciado, a parent of a Worthington Elementary student.

Worthington Elementary is currently being looked at by the district’s School Consolidation and Closure Committee. Schools across the district have seen a decline in enrollment over the past decade.

“We went from about 18,000 students to about 8,000 students,” said Dr. James Morris, a county administrator from the IUSD.

The school is in the middle of a neighborhood and many people walk their kids to school and it has a strong Spanish immersion program.

“I’m Hispanic but my kids don’t speak Spanish but thanks to the Spanish immersion my kids can read write and understand Spanish,” said Cristal Magallanes, a parent of a Worthington Elementary student.

Parents believe the district wants to close Worthington because of its close proximity to new development and use the land to develop homes. This was done on a piece of unused district land already.

Warren Lane Elementary closed in 2022, its land may be sold or developed and the district says it is still deciding but denies such plans are in place for Worthington.

“Nothing has been discussed about this site,” Morris said.

The district says no decision has been made about Worthington Elementary but teachers and parents believe the writing is on the wall, by the very fact there is a school consolidation and closure committee rather than a student retention program.

“Their plan is to shutdown our school,” Preciado said.


Source: NBC Los Angeles

Be First to Comment

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *