HYDE PARK : Church Takes Pupils Displaced by Quake

The row of fluttering blue and yellow balloons tethered to a chain-link fence at St. John the Evangelist Church welcomed 190 students last week from earthquake-damaged Nativity School, a small South Los Angeles campus.

“After the quake happened, the diocese was brainstorming about what they could do, and came up with this,” said St. John Principal Margaret Welle. “It’s real lucky we had the space here. We’re glad to be able to accommodate them.”

As Catholic school officials pondered what to do with the displaced Nativity population, Welle and a local Catholic school administrator suggested using the little-used rooms on St. John’s campus and in its parish hall basement across Victoria Avenue from the church. Though it meant that the school would be divided--kindergarten through fourth grade on one side of the street, fifth and sixth on another--most of the Nativity staff, students and parents welcomed the offer.

“To find all this room was nothing short of a miracle,” said Nativity Principal Sister Ann Dermody, surrounded Monday by stacks of cardboard boxes in her makeshift office in the basement. “Even though it rained today, it didn’t hinder us. Nearly everyone is here.”

Nativity’s three-mile move from Vermont Avenue and 57th Street continued right up through Feb. 4, three days before students were scheduled to arrive. Classroom essentials, such as desks with books still inside, were moved wholesale; computer and library materials, file cabinets and other equipment will remain while Nativity’s fate is being decided.

Although Nativity’s church was relatively unharmed by the quake, the school was hit hard. The main kitchen and several bathrooms are unusable, access to rooms was cut off, holes were ripped through walls, ceilings cracked and many rooms have been condemned. The school was seismically retrofitted in 1988, “probably the only reason it’s still standing,” Welle said.

Though quickly prepared, the basement quarters at St. John’s parish hall have the pleasant air of a new apartment, smelling of fresh paint and just-laid carpet. The fifth- and sixth-grade students readily adjusted to being seated in an open room, remaining studiously quiet as teachers alternated instruction and individual activities.

“I’m happy to be in school again, even though we have to work extra hard to catch up,” said 11-year-old Jose Jimenez.

“Being at home three weeks felt like being in jail.”

The addition of Nativity’s students swells the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade population at St. John by two-thirds, but the schools will operate fairly independently of each other. While bathroom and playground facilities are shared on the main campus, the parish hall has its own playground and other facilities. Ill-equipped to deal with more students, the small cafeteria serves cold lunches to Nativity students.

Though they said they are pleased with the arrangement, Welle and Dermody said they are worried about ongoing student transportation. Most Nativity parents don’t own cars; few can afford monthly bus passes for their children. Last week most students were taxied over to St. John by teachers and parents who coordinated pools.

The principals have been unsuccessful in getting bus services donated by local politicians or organizations.

Dermody and Welle said that Nativity will remain at St. John at least through June. And for the time being, many students said they are grateful to be back in school, improvised though it may be.

“I got bored at home. I wanted to come back,” said 12-year-old Alejandro Ramirez. “It feels kind of weird to not really know where anything is, but it’s OK. My mom thinks it’s good that I’m here, though it’s kind of far.”