Gabrielino High School

Officials of two local school districts reacted with either relief or disappointment this week in the wake of an appeals court ruling that allows Gabrielino High School in San Gabriel to remain open. "Everyone has been living in a state of ambiguity," said Gary Goodson, San Gabriel school district superintendent. "It's like a dark cloud has been lifted from over us." But in Alhambra, school officials had a sharply different view.

When word got around Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra that social studies teacher Sharron Heinrich had applied for a new job, some of her colleagues called her a traitor and an opportunist. Heinrich did not plan to leave Mark Keppel for just any school. She wanted to join forces with Alhambra's rival, the new Gabrielino High School in neighboring San Gabriel, which had broken away from the Alhambra district to open its own high school. "People were saying, 'How could she do this?

A $29.9-million bond issue that would have funded construction of a new high school in San Gabriel was defeated in Tuesday's election, but San Gabriel Unified School District Supt. Gary E. Goodson said the high school will open this fall anyway, in temporary facilities. The bond measure fell far short of the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. Despite vigorous efforts by bond supporters to rally support among San Gabriel voters, the measure did not garner even a simple majority.

The San Gabriel Board of Education will place a $29.9-million bond measure before voters in the school district on April 12 to finance improvements to the proposed Gabrielino High School and two elementary schools. Last March, a similar measure won only 46.6% of the vote, far short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass a local school bond.

San Gabriel's new high school will be the first public building in the state to honor the Gabrielino Indians. A tribal council meeting in San Gabriel erupted in cheers Sunday when the acting chief of the Gabrielinos unveiled a sign proclaiming "Gabrielino High School." "It's a great honor for our tribe. Many of those at Sunday's meeting were elders who'd struggled for decades to gain recognition for our tribe," said Anthony Morales, acting chief.

Bad news for President Clinton. The San Gabriel Unified School District will not consider naming its first high school after him. A majority of more than 60 students and local residents who responded to a district request for high school names suggested Clinton's. But a district committee decided it is too soon to use the name of the five-month president. Three names will be chosen for a ballot that will appear in the district newsletter later this year.