In the next five years, the Long Beach Unified School District will make a $105 million investment in the North Long Beach community through a major renovation of Jordan High School, scheduled for completion in 2015.

As the single largest project funded by Measure K, (the $1.2 billion school bond measure approved by voters in 2008) Jordan High School’s renovation will transform the campus into a model 21st Century learning environment. The school could become a new centerpiece for revitalization of the larger North Long Beach area. Community revitalization is an ambitious endeavor but it is vital to student success.

I am pleased to announce the North Long Beach Initiative, a six-month planning effort to address the educational and social issues of students and their families.

In the coming weeks and months, our school district, in collaboration with the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, will conduct community surveys and a series of forums and focus groups to determine the greatest challenges and most-needed resources in North Long Beach.

We will seek input from a broad spectrum of individuals representing government, non-profit organizations, business and professional entities, parents and school-based groups. A North Long Beach Initiative Community Advisory Committee has been formed to help guide planning and outreach.

This initiative represents the district’s desire to ensure educational success for all its students. We believe that every child can succeed and that all children deserve the resources and support needed to do so. Please join us in making this vision a reality in North Long Beach.

Why is is the North Long Beach Initiative Needed?

• The North Long Beach Initiative will guide public policy on increasing students’ academic and social success.
  
  
• Today, North Long Beach students, as a group, are less likely to be English-proficient and to meet state-wide grade level standards than students in other parts of the Long Beach Unified School District.
  
  
• Most North Long Beach students are from low-income households, and are 90 percent Latino or African American.
  
  
• Although North Long Beach students have made great strides in recent years, they lag behind students in many other schools statewide and in Long Beach on the state Academic Performance Index.