Fern Elementary School, previously known as Fern Avenue School, is a public elementary school that is in

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...

, and a part of the

Torrance Unified School District Torrance Unified School District (TUSD) is a school district in Los Angeles County, California, with its headquarters in Torrance. The district board of education has a president, a vice president, a clerk, and two members. As of 2021, the Di ...

(TUSD). It is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

(NRHP) as #92000067 on February 20, 1992. its attendance area includes portions of Torrance west of Madrid Avenue.

History

It opened as Redondo Boulevard School, then in the

Los Angeles City School District The Los Angeles City School District was a school district that served Los Angeles, California, and some adjoining areas between 1870 and 1961. History The district was formed on May 2, 1870, with the same boundaries as the city of Los Angeles. In ...

, in 1926 and became Fern Avenue School in 1928. Its initial school facility was a temporary group of

bungalows A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a bu ...

that became overcrowded. The LA School District chose not to build a new school, despite Torrance residents voting in favor for a school bond of that district on March 27, 1931, as it was afraid that Torrance would later secede from the school district. The Los Angeles School District changed its plans in 1932, and the current facility was built with $84,000 from the $12.7 million bond. Torrance residents pressured the district into immediately hooking the school to the sewer system instead of the initial plans for the school to use a cesspool. On January 2, 1933, the permanent school opened. It became a part TUSD in 1947. Torrance USD proposed razing the building on March 6, 1957, for fear that it would not meet earthquake standards but in March 1958 the State of California ruled that it would cost less money to retrofit the existing facility. In 1996 TUSD put some portable classrooms on Greenwood Park to relieve Fern. They remained in use until September 2012, when a permanent $13.5 million 14-classroom addition and renovation opened. The current dining hall and a multipurpose room are in this addition.

References

External links

Fern Elementary School

Profile
at the ''

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'' Education in Torrance, California Buildings and structures in Torrance, California Elementary schools in Los Angeles County, California School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in California 1926 establishments in California Educational institutions established in 1926 {{LosAngelesCountyCA-school-stub