Updated With Map: Taylor Yard High School Boundaries Announced

After years of planning and construction, administrators announced Wednesday night the official boundaries for the new Central High School No. 13, which will open in September.

Taylor Yard High School, as it is informally known, will be located 2050 San Fernando Road. The school’s boundaries stretch from the Arroyo Seco Parkway to Fletcher Drive along Avenue 37 and to Riverside Drive. The new school will enroll students from Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Lincoln Heights.

Residents of Mount Washington will also have the option to send their children to the new high school and will also be able to choose from Franklin High School and Lincoln High School, said Phillip Naimo, the school’s interim principal in a community meeting Wednesday night inside Franklin High School’s auditorium.

The new high school will relieve overcrowding at Eagle Rock High School, Franklin High School, Lincoln High School, Marshall High School and the Belmont Zone of Choice.

Starting next school year, 576 students from Marshall High School, 560 students from Eagle Rock High School, 220 students from Franklin High School, 148 students from Lincoln High School and 90 from the Belmont Zone of Choice will move to the new high school, said Naimo.

Enrollment is estimated at 1,594 students. There will be no senior class for the first year.

“We wanted seniors to graduate with their classmates,” he said. 

Naimo described the new campus as a state-of-the-art facility. It will house five small academies, a library, multi-purpose rooms, performing arts classrooms, two gymnasiums and a track and football field.

Taylor Yard High School will be the only school in the district with a Career Technical Educational Science labs and a greenhouse.

“Can you imagine if we can bring scientists from the field and teach our students?” Naimo told parents. “I used to be a biology teacher, you can see how excited I am about the science labs.”

The school will also have a "bioswale" hole, which will collect runoff water. Students will be able to test the water and help prevent the polluted water from going to the ocean or the Los Angeles River, he said.

Naimo explained that the teachers for the school have not been hired because the Los Angeles Board of Trustees has not decided which five academies will be picked from the six proposals submitted last year. The decision will be made during a board meeting March 15. 

The following groups submitted a proposal to become part of the new high school:

• Technology and Math and Science High School Alliance College -Ready Public Schools

• ArtLab: Arts and Community Empowerment

• Los Angeles River School

• Partnership to Uplift Communities (PUC) LA

• School of History and Dramatic Arts

• School of Technology, Business and Education

The academies are vying to operate within the new school under the Los Angeles Unified School District's Public School Choice Motion, which was approved by the school board in 2009 to increase competition and give community members a hand in crafting the learning plans of their schools.

Each academy will have its own teachers and principal, he said.

Another important issue parents raised during the meeting was safety. 

“What’s going to happen with the rival gangs in the new school?” a parent wrote in an index card.

“We are working with LA school police, LAPD, probation and youth gang intervention,” Naimo said. “We knew that it would be an issue and a concern that we need to address.” 

He explained that administrators are planning to have a safety meeting in the future to address those issues.

Construction of this school is part of the district’s $20.3 billion modernization progress, which is expected to build 132 schools by 2012.

Update: Click the box to the right to see an outlined map of the new high school's catchment area.