PASADENA RESIDENTS OPPOSE ARMENIAN SCHOOL OPENING

CBS 2, CA
Aug. 23, 2006

(CBS) PASADENA, Calif. Some Pasadena residents, fearing increased
traffic and noise, opposed a planned that would open an Armenian high
school in the Victory Park area, it was reported Wednesday.

The Armenian General Benevolent Union High School was scheduled to
open Sept. 12, but members of the Mountain Park Villa Condominiums
Homeowners Association said the site was approved for use by
an elementary school or church, not a high school, the Pasadena
Star-News reported.

"Teenagers are not little kids, they can cause a lot of noise and
mischief," former association board member Loraine Bernstein said.

"I’m very hesitant."

Fifty students in grades 9 through 11 already registered for the
coming school year. The school also considered adding a 12th grade
and expanding to about 100 students in coming years.

The Armenian General Benevolent Union, a national organization that
promotes Armenian heritage, owned the land at 2495 E. Mountain St.

for more than a decade, but had been renting much of the space to an
elementary school.

AGBU Chairman Vahe Imasdounian said at a community meeting that the
private school would improve the neighborhood.

"Whatever it takes," he told the newspaper. "We want to make this
neighborhood better and better."