Courtesy of the Long Beach Unified School District Bulletin
A newly built Dooly Elementary School opened Sept. 5 in North Long Beach, accommodating more than 1,000 students. The K-5 school has already won a design award from the American Institute of Architects in Orange County.
Named after the Dooley family and their landmark hardware store that once occupied the property, the project is the first new school to open in Long Beach since Cesar Chavez Elementary School’s fall 2004 opening.
Most of the new school’s students had attended nearby Sutter K-8 School, which this fall was transformed into a middle school, servicing grades six through eight. Sutter was renamed Lindsey Academy after respected educator Perry Lindsey, who was the first African-American school principal in Long Beach. Lindsey also served as one of World War II’s famed Tuskegee Airmen.
Dooley Elementary, located on five acres at 5075 Long Beach Boulevard, provides 118,000 square feet of building space, including 55 classrooms. The school features two-story construction with exterior balconies, a large courtyard, separate kindergarten area, multi-purpose room, media center, service kitchen, energy-saving design and a parking structure with an upper-level playground.
The school provides computer outlets throughout, two computer labs, an exterior amphitheatre-type assembly area, student drop-off area, a grass playfield and classrooms incorporating built-in teacher desks and operable walls allowing flexible teaching arrangements.
