Businesswire: Lynwood Unified School District Leaders Secure Support from Elected Officials in Sacramento to Confirm Funding to Make the District Whole
By Tania Llavaneras / Jahmal Corner
Advocating for Past, Present and Future Generations of High School Students in the Area, District Leaders are Setting a Goal to Receive Necessary Funds to Provide State-of-the-Art Facilities for Local Students
LYNWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With the goal to provide a renovated campus that will offer state-of-the-art facilities for thousands of local high school students, a group of Lynwood Unified School District Board of Education members joined District leaders and the Superintendent in late April to visit the State Capitol and advocate for financial support in the rebuilding of Lynwood High School’s fallen Imperial Campus. This support will make Lynwood whole and bring back an essential high school campus that is desperately needed by Lynwood’s youth to succeed both academically and personally.
The district group, led by Mr. Alfonso Morales, School Board President; Ms. Maria Lopez, Lynwood Unified School Board Member; Dr. Gudiel Crosthwaite, Superintendent; Gregory Fromm, Assistant Superintendent Business Services; and Jahmal Corner, Public Information Officer, met with the offices of three senators and seven assembly members in Sacramento to champion action following construction failures that led to a building collapse back in June 2020. Lynwood Unified is requesting financial support needed to rebuild and fully restore a high-quality campus for the Lynwood community, as well as address the consequential damages to the district.
As a result of this special visit, Senator Lena Gonzalez issued a line-item budget request letter to support funding for this project. “The community of Lynwood and the students of LUSD are in need of immediate financial assistance to fund the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Lynwood High School, in order to help them through this unprecedented emergency,” said Senator Gonzalez in the letter, which was also endorsed by Assemblymember Mike Gipson.
“The district has come a long way to improve academic outcomes and we are committed to ensuring that we continue that upward trajectory,” LUSD Superintendent, Gudiel R. Crosthwaite said. “We are incredibly grateful for the urgent attention and leadership displayed by our elected officials who are paving the way for us to secure the educational environment Lynwood students deserve.”
The 2020 building collapse, which fortunately happened during pandemic school closure and did not physically harm anyone, occurred due to major construction and structural shortcuts as per DSA findings following the incident – discovered during an inspection of the state-built 24-year-old campus.