Board Fires Air-Conditioning Contractor for 2 Schools

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Monday to fire the contractor it hired last year to install air conditioning at Roscoe Elementary School and have school-district workers do the job instead.

Voting 5 to 0, with West San Fernando Valley member David Armor abstaining, board members decided that the contractor, Ashman Air Conditioning of California, had defaulted on the contract for the school in Sun Valley. The board also rescinded in the same vote the company’s contract to install air conditioning at Bell High School in Bell.

Byron Kimball, director of school facilities, said in a report to the board that Bloomington-based Ashman had fallen behind schedule in the work, originally contracted for in March, 1984. The company was served notice by the school district in a letter dated July 10 to improve its services at both schools within three days or face loss of the contracts.

District Blamed for Delays

Contractor Chet Ashman, who owns the company, blamed the delays on the school district’s making changes in the work specifications and said that, in some cases, the district was slow to notify the company.

“We’re not fully to blame for the extended time it took to complete this project,” Ashman told the board before the vote. “We had change orders that took five months to get back to us. There are still some change orders outstanding.”

Ashman was referring to specifications for the air-duct systems, which were redesigned at the request of the district. He said one change for Roscoe was agreed upon Dec. 21 but was not approved by the district until May 6.

“Some things we could do, but we couldn’t put a full work force on the job until we received the go-ahead,” Ashman said.

Kimball said that, even after the district put the firm on notice, Ashman did not move fast enough. Although the firm increased its crew at Roscoe from two to three people, “generally the workmen did not get there until mid-morning, and they would leave around mid-afternoon,” Kimball told board members Monday.

District Workers to Take Over

Kimball said school-district workers could start taking over the job immediately.

But Ashman, who estimated that he could have done the Bell project in three weeks had the board not made so many changes, said he believes otherwise. “They can’t do it any faster than we could have done it.” he said.

Ashman said his company stands to lose a total of $80,000 on the Bell and Roscoe projects. “We’ve done many jobs for the school districts and we’ve completed seven on time. I don’t think we’re getting a fair shake,” he said.

Teachers at Roscoe complained to the school district earlier this summer that classroom temperatures had risen as high as 104 degrees.