Santee Education Complex

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name = Santee Education Complex


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location = 1921 South Maple Avenue
Los Angeles Ca.
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Santee Education Complex is a secondary school located at 1921 South Maple Avenue in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Santee, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Santee is located in the South Los Angeles area. The school was located in a former Santee Dairy facility. The campus building opened on July 5, 2005. The school was temporarily named South Los Angeles New Area High School #1 before being christened "Santee Education Complex". [" [http://www.laschools.org/project-status/one-project?project_number=55A98010 South LA Area New HS #1, 55A98010] ," "Los Angeles Unified School District"]

Santee has "small learning communities." When the school opened, the school contained the following communities:
*Public Service & Social Justice
*Business, Technology & Finance
*Travel, Tourism & Culinary Arts
*Arts and Entertainment
*Fashion Design & Visual ArtsIn 2006, another "small learning community", Construction & Architecture, started. [ [http://www.lausd.net/SLC_Schools/docs/newsletter/osr_nwslttr_090806e.pdf Los Angeles Unified School District ] ]

Santee Educational Complex has a year-round, three track schedule. The school uses block scheduling.

History

In 2005, soil samples taken at the former Santee Dairy facility found high levels of carcinogens in soil used as foundation fill for a high school then under construction. A small controversy brewed on the matter, with some neighborhood activists and LAUSD critics claiming a repeat of the Belmont Learning Center fiasco. State scientists determined that the contaminated soil was sufficiently deep to pose no threat to students on the site, and Santee Education Complex opened in July 2005 [http://www.utla.net/faqs/buildingchapter.php] . The school had around 25 unfilled positions at the time of its opening.

The school received the nickname "Santee Dairy High" because of the former dairy facility.

When the school opened, it relieved Manual Arts High School and Jefferson High School [http://www.laschools.org/project-status/one-project?project_number=55A98010] . Neighborhoods served by Santee are also in close proximity to Belmont High School and John C. Fremont High School [http://susanohanian.org/atrocity_fetch.php?id=5630] .

After its opening, Santee developed a "rough" environment with low test scores. [ [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/schoolme/2006/11/excop_principal.html School Me! Adventures in Education ] ] The school's attendance boundaries include many of Los Angeles' most violent neighborhoods; [ [http://susanohanian.org/atrocity_fetch.php?id=5630 Susan Ohanian's Testing Atrocities (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out) ] ] according to a 2005 article, many students walk through more than fifty "gang territories" to get to school. In 2005, 18 documented gangs had members enrolled in Santee.

In August 2006, the students wrote letters to the mayor, asking for more protection for the area around their school [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/schoolme/2006/08/wednesdays_morn_2.html] .

The school will be relieved by Central Region High School 16 when that school opens in 2011. [ [http://www.laschools.org/project-status/one-project?project_number=56.40055 Project Details ] ]

In February 2007, LACMTA rerouted a bus route serving Santee along the way, citing concerns by students that the occupants had to travel through unsafe areas. LAUSD Superintendent David Brewer and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa rode the first bus going to Santee. While Brewer and Villaraigosa were on board the bus, a "Los Angeles Times" photographer snapped a photograph of a Santee 10th grader tagging a window of the bus. Villaraigosa offered to counsel the arrested tagging student. [ [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tagger1mar01,1,1137106.story L.A.'s mayor offers to mentor tagging suspect - Los Angeles Times ] ] [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-long3mar03,0,4235750.story?coll=la-opinion-center When vandals become entrepreneurs - Los Angeles Times ] ] The student was charged with misdemeanor vandalism.

In May 2007 teachers from Santee began negotiations with Green Dot, a charter school operator. [ [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charter25may25,1,3346991.story Faculty at 2 more campuses discuss breakaway idea - Los Angeles Times ] ]

Santee will be relieved when South Region High School 2 opens in 2011. [ [http://www.laschools.org/project-status/one-project?project_number=56.40018 Project Details ] ]

References