Maywood activists' fight against new school costs L.A. Unified $20 million
By Ruben Vives/Los Angeles Times
Some say this small city's struggle to block construction of a high school may be a losing battle, but a tenacious group of Maywood activists has managed to hit the Los Angeles Unified School District where it hurts -- in the wallet. By calling on a very powerful friend in Sacramento and organizing hundreds of families who would have to vacate their homes and apartments to make way for the proposed school, Maywood officials succeeded recently in depriving L.A. Unified of $20 million in state matching funds. And that figure could grow. "How does that old saying go? We may have won the battle, but we haven't won the war," said Tere Nuñez, one of the affected residents and mother of four. (more...)