School Board Votes To Rebuild Wedgeworth Elementary In Hacienda Heights As K-5 School
HACIENDA HEIGHTS (CBSLA) — The Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District has voted to rebuild Wedgeworth Elementary School, which has been languishing in portable buildings for years.
Parents had stepped up criticism of district officials and staged protests in recent weeks, decrying the conditions at the nationally-recognized school, which provides a dual-immersion curriculum in Mandarin and English along with coding classes. Wedgeworth's students and teachers had been marking their achievements in portable buildings that parents describe as infested with pests and rife with sewage problems.
On Tuesday, the district's board of education voted 4-1 to approve a new, permanent building for the school. However, it will be rebuilt as a K-5 school, rather than K-8.
School Board member Stephanie Serrano, who previously said taking a $50 million loan out to build a new school would not be fiscally responsible or equitable to all the families in the district, cast the lone vote against the plan.
