The bell of Felton Elementary School in Lennox will ring for the last time in June.
The Lennox School District Board of Trustees voted 4-1 on Tuesday to shutter the district’s smallest school in an attempt to get ahead of what district leaders say are structural budget deficits. Board member Marisol Cruz was the lone dissenter.
“This is a painful decision,” said Karina Cordero, school board clerk. “We are not just looking out for the students at Felton, we are looking out for all of the students.”
The Lennox district’s enrollment of 3,700 is down more than 1,000 students over a decade and is likely to keep dropping, according to district projections. Superintendent Gabriela Tavitian said gentrification in Lennox neighborhoods and federal immigration operations across the region have fueled the problem.
State public school funding is partially determined by school headcounts, so the decline has also eaten into district budgets.
Parents packed the meeting to stop the vote
Dozens of parents, teachers and administrators filled the audience of the trustees meeting on Tuesday night to protest the looming closure.
Jose Luis Becerra, the father of a Felton fourth grader who helped organize families in opposition, said he believed the board didn’t give enough weight to parent perspectives. “It’s a lopsided situation,” Becerra said.
Meeting attendees unfurled a 20-foot-long banner in the back of the Jefferson Elementary School cafeteria where the meeting was held. “Keep Felton Open,” the banner read in giant blue letters.
A lot of parent concerns stemmed from the fact that most of the district’s special education students are concentrated at Felton, which has a population of 364 students. This year, more than 90 populated the school’s special day classes.
Some parents said they worry the looming closure and transfer will be harmful for their children and that the district won’t be able to replace the special education programs Felton has developed.
“Give us one more year so we can have a calmer transition for ourselves, for our children,” Aurora Galvan said in Spanish during the meeting’s public comment section.
Elizabeth Rendon said her son had previously attended a school in neighboring Inglewood Unified School District, but transferred to Felton in fall 2023 and had a much better experience.
Rendon said the district did not do enough analysis before choosing Felton to close. “They just glossed through the equity impact,” Rendon said.
Tavitian told The LA Local the concentrated special education classes are uninclusive, poor policy and bad for students. The district plans to divide those students between the district’s remaining four elementary campuses and relocate Felton’s general education students to nearby Buford Elementary School.
Board discussion over closure got heated
Cruz, the board member who voted against the closure, argued that the district is not yet in a financial crisis and should take its time to make the best decision possible.
“It’s not an emergency. We don’t have to make drastic decisions,” Cruz said, adding that the district’s two town hall meetings to discuss the closure had not been enough.
Discussion between Cruz and other board members grew heated in moments.
“It’s easy to talk with emotions. Our job is to be a leader, think critically and make decisions,” board member Julio Vargas said in one reply to Cruz.
“Where is your critical thinking, Vargas?” Cruz interrupted. “Where is your critical thinking?”
Angela Fajardo, school board president, said the district cannot kick the can down the road.
“It’s not easy to make hard decisions,” Fajardo said.
Felton’s closure will mean layoffs for some support staff like janitors and office workers, Tavitian told The LA Local, and potential layoffs for teachers, depending on how many voluntarily leave at the end of the school year.
