Construction Begins at Site of School Razed After Quake

Nearly two years after Van Gogh Street Elementary School was razed following crippling damage in the Northridge earthquake, beaming school district and federal officials broke ground Tuesday at a site where it will be rebuilt.

The 350-student school in Granada Hills was damaged so severely in the earthquake that it had to be torn down. Officials called its $6.1-million reconstruction a sign that the quake’s ravages can finally be repaired. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided the funds.

“There is hope,” said Sid Thompson, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, after plunging a shovel into the soil where the school once stood.

The quake fissured the school’s playground and ripped cracks in the main hallway. Inspectors concluded that the soil was not stable enough to support the existing structures in another quake, and the campus was razed in the summer 1994.

Since then, Van Gogh students and staff have been housed in nearby Frost Junior High. In fall 1997, when the campus is expected to be finished, only two classes of Van Gogh students will have seen the original campus.

Van Gogh Principal Maureen Diekmann said many are looking forward to the return.

“We have a very good situation where we are,” she said as kids scampered in the background, “but we’ll be very happy to have our big playground and auditorium back.”