Local News in Brief : Committee Puts Valley Schools Lower on Air-Conditioning List

Acompromise in the dispute over the Los Angeles school district’s air-conditioning plan for year-round campuses, which affects eight San Fernando Valley schools, has been approved by the school board’s Building Committee.

The change will give 14 of the oldest year-round schools priority for preliminary design work over 17 other schools, including the Valley campuses, which have operated year-round for a shorter time.

The eight Valley schools are Camellia Avenue, Fair Avenue and Oxnard Street schools in North Hollywood; Roscoe School in Sun Valley; Vaughn Street in San Fernando, and the Haddon Avenue, Montague Street and Pacoima schools in Pacoima. They went to year-round schedules between 1981 and 1983 but, according to the original district plan, were slated for design work ahead of several others campuses that have suffered longer without air conditioning.

Under the change, plans for cooling systems at the five Valley schools will not be drawn up until engineering work is completed for the older year-round campuses, according to Byron Kimball, who oversees district building and maintenance. Those older year-round schools are located in the district’s Hollywood, Southeast and Central City areas. The compromise does not affect the district’s goal of air-conditioning all year-round classrooms by 1987, he said.

The change was made in response to criticism from committee member Jackie Goldberg that the $6.2 million the district will spend on air conditioning this year should be used to speed completion of work at year-round campuses that have had to endure as many as six summers without cooling systems in many classrooms. East Valley representative Roberta Weintraub, also a member of the Building Committee, argued that the changes would cause too much disruption.

Committee Chairman Larry Gonzalez agreed with Weintraub, saying that the district was “too far into the plan” to make extensive changes now.