Lawndale Elementary School District (LESD) is a

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

headquartered in Lawndale,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The district educates residents in: Lawndale, and portions of

Hawthorne Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne may also refer to: Places Australia *Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Canada * Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario United States * Hawt ...

, as well as unincorporated areas in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

(including Alondra Park).Alondra Park CDP, California
"

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

. Retrieved on January 2, 2017. Compare this map to boundary maps issued by school districts. It formerly covered a portion of

Del Aire Del Aire () (Spanish language, Spanish for "Of The Air") is a census-designated place (CDP) in the inland South Bay, Los Angeles County, California, United States, between El Segundo, California, El Segundo and Hawthorne, California, Hawthorne. Th ...

. - Note that since 2020 the Wiseburn USD distric
expanded in size to cover the rest of Del Aire
Compare the 2020 map to th
current Wiseburn USD map
and it shows the affected areas of Measure A (2021) are part
of Del Aire CDP

History

Around the mid-20th century most of the families were Anglo White and blue collar. In 1968 the district had 7,016 students, a peak enrollment. However in 1983 it was down to 3,974, which became the lowest enrollment at the time. The enrollment declined because the area became more expensive, limiting the number of new families. In 1985 the district's enrollment had increased to 4,030 students, with 42.9% being Anglo White, 37.3% being Latino or Hispanic, 13.9% being Asians, 5.6% being black, and 0.4% being Native American. In 1987 there Larry Breon, a member of the Lawndale city council, put forward a proposal to merge this district with the

Centinela Valley Union High School District Centinela Valley Union High School District, (CVUHSD) is a public union high school district located in southern California that serves about 6,800 students in grades 9–12 from Lawndale, Hawthorne, Lennox, Del Aire, and El Camino Village. ...

, with the former

Lawndale High School Lawndale High School is one of three high schools in Lawndale, California, United States. The school was closed in 1981, and reopened in 1998. It is one of three schools in the Centinela Valley Union High School District. In 2009, Lawndale High ...

being the

unified school district A unified school district (in the states of Arizona, California, Kansas and Oregon) or unit school district (in Illinois), in the United States of America, is a school district that generally includes and operates both primary schools (kindergarten ...

's high school. Due to potential complexities, a lawyer from the Centinela district criticized the plan. James Waters served as the superintendent until 1991, when he moved to be the

Santee School District Santee School District (Santee Elementary School District) is the district that governs all public elementary schools in Santee, California. The two high schools in Santee, Santana and West Hills are part by the Grossmont Union High School Dist ...

superintendent. His resignation was effective after September 20, 1991. Around 1991 the annual growth rate for the student body was 100 as wealthier families were moving to the district. In 1991 Kim Kowsky of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' stated that the district, in light of the expansion of the number of racial and ethnic minority students, was "rapidly changing" and that therefore there were "lively" board campaigns for three seats on the district board. As of October 1991, there were 4,332 students: 41% of the students were Latino or Hispanic, 31% were Anglo White, 13% were black, and 10% were Asian. Of the student body,

limited English proficiency Limited English proficiency (LEP) is a term used in the United States that refers to a person who is not fluent in the English language, often because it is not their native language. Both LEP and English-language learner (ELL) are terms used by th ...

students made up less than 30%. The enrollment circa August 1991 was about 4,500. In 2021 a block of unincorporated areas that was in the Lawndale School District and Centinela Valley USD voted on a proposal on whether it should move to the Wiseburn Unified School District; previously students living in the block living in Wiseburn would have had to get permission from their zoned school districts to attend Wiseburn. According to Hunter Lee the ''

Daily Breeze The ''Daily Breeze'' is a 57,000-circulation daily newspaper published in Hermosa Beach, California Hermosa Beach (''Hermosa'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of Calif ...

'', "few" people voted in the election. The vote to transfer the area to Wiseburn was approved. - See "LAWNDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT, CENTINELA VALLEY UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT, WISEBURN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT SPECIAL REORGANIZATION ELECTION - MEASURE A"

Schools

;Elementary schools * William Anderson Elementary School ( Lawndale) * William Green Elementary School (Lawndale) * Billy Mitchell Elementary School (Lawndale) ** Circa 1991 it was one of the largest LESD campuses. * Franklin D. Roosevelt-Kit Carson Elementary School ( Alondra Park, ''

Unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

'') * Lucille J. Smith Elementary School (Lawndale) * Mark Twain Elementary School (Alondra Park, ''Unincorporated area'') ;Middle schools *Jane Addams Middle School (Lawndale) *Will Rogers Middle School (Lawndale) The district had closed four schools due to the 1970s to 1980s population decline.

Jonas Salk Jonas Edward Salk (; born Jonas Salk; October 28, 1914June 23, 1995) was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New Y ...

School in Hawthorne by then was not in use.

References

External links

Lawndale Elementary School District
!--Multiple URLs available: http://www.lawndalesd.net/ or http://www.lawndale.k12.ca.us or http://lesd-ca.schoolloop.com all as of 2019/11/10 seem to point to the same location--> {{Education in Los Angeles County, California School districts in Los Angeles County, California Lawndale, California Hawthorne, California