The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education voted unanimously on Tuesday to spend approximately $230,000 to convert a traditional classroom building into a girls-only STEM academy that will focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at the campus of Los Angeles High School.

The Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA) is scheduled to open in fall 2016 in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), with space for 475 students. It will provide a rigorous curriculum that will focus on helping provide students with a clear pathway to college.

The single-gender admissions policy is designed to reduce the achievement and participation gap between boys and girls in STEM classes. The school will open with grades six through nine, and will grow one grade level each year, with its first students graduating in 2020.

“I am pleased to support the expansion of STEM-focused learning environments for girls in District 1,” said George J. McKenna III, the school board member who represents the Mid-Wilshire area. “The need has never been greater. Media reports constantly bemoan the lack of females in tech-related sectors of our economy. Graduates of GALA will be fully prepared to enter the higher education discipline of their choice and help to expand the diversity of those represented in STEM and other technology-related careers.”

Following the school board’s vote in April to approve the academy, LAUSD secured a waiver from the state’s department of education that was needed to operate the girls-only school.