North Campus Housing Pupils Reassigned

The Board of Education approved a recommendation to reassign incoming students from the North Campus area to Lawton, Lakewood, Haisley and Burns Park elementary schools to relieve the overcrowding of King. The recommendation for reassignment would not affect students currently enrolled at King but would instead affect all families moving into the North Campus area after May. School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr. had been directed by the board "to take suggestions of the North Campus residents to the appropriate people at the University to see if they were willing to begin discussions to explore means of solving the problem and to return to the board with alternative recommendations. The superintendent subsequently prepared a letter to the University which was answered by University Vice President W. K. Pierpont. That response offered no hope that current University facilities are available for school purposes. Nor did it provide any prospect of University leased, purchased, or constructed school units. It did however, suggest the possibility of a school site on North Campus. According to Westerman, "the permanent solution to the serious pupil overload created by the University housing program appears to be the construction of a full scale elementary school on North Campus to be available the fall of 1973.