Board Threatens to Fire Builder of Tardy School

Angered by countless delays and worried that thousands of students will be stranded in already overcrowded facilities, Vista school board members have threatened to fire the builder of the district’s second high school if construction isn’t completed by September.

Contractor C.V. Holder missed his March deadline for completing Rancho Buena Vista High School, and now trustees are fretting that the 1,600 students expected to attend classes there this fall may have to stay at already bulging Vista High School.

District trustees last Thursday gave Holder 10 days to provide evidence to the board that he can complete the job by July or be fired.

Subcontractors Blamed

“At the schedule they are going now, they won’t finish by September,” said trustee Lance Vollmer, adding that Holder, a Gardena contractor, has cited problems with subcontractors as the reason why construction is lagging.

Vollmer, who is also a contractor, added, “There have been problems all along the way.”

From the time it was designed five years ago, Rancho Buena Vista High School has seemed to have a black cloud hanging permanently over its partially finished walls and walkways.

To begin with, although the state will pay $17.9 million for the school, the district will have to pay about $2 million more than expected because of rising costs and changes in state laws since plans for the facility were first drawn up.

The school was designed when the county was in a recession and contractors were begging for work. But by 1985, when the project was finally put up for bid, district officials found that contractors were busy and costs had risen much higher than anticipated, Vollmer said.

“Going through the state was real tedious,” he said of the lengthy process that district officials went through to get permission to build the school.

Forced to Cut Costs

State regulations such as a requirement for six science labs instead of four boosted costs so much that trustees were forced to prune $900,000 from the project.

Among the items lost were covered walkways in school corridors, sky lights in every section of the school except the library, and a weight room adjacent to the gymnasium, Vollmer said.

And now there is the possibility of not opening in September.

At the site this week, the walls to the main building were being sand-blasted by workers, and gravel was being brought in for the school’s running track.

Many workers were digging the foundations for outer walls, while others worked on the school’s landscaping.

Vollmer said Holder may have to start working his staff in double shifts to finish the job in time.

Labor costs for such measures would not cost the district more because an agreement was made with Holder that he only be paid by the amount of work he finishes, Vollmer said.

Holder did not return numerous calls to his office this week, and his site supervisor would not answer questions concerning the delays.

“We don’t want any more publicity on this,” said Roy Elrod at the site on Live Oak Drive.

‘Reasons Don’t Count’

“My feelings on this is that there are two things in life, reasons and results. And reasons don’t count,” Trustee Stephen Guffanti said of problems Holder has had with subcontractors.

Last July, Holder’s first steel contractor defaulted, causing a two-month delay in construction, school officials said.

Holder told trustees that other contractors have similarly defaulted or quit, Vollmer said.

Since the end of March, when he failed to meet his completion date, Holder has had to pay the district a penalty of a $1,000 a day. Trustees say, however, that will not compensate for possible inconvenience placed on the thousands of students who might have to once again crowd Vista High School.

Vollmer said Vista High has an enrollment of about 3,700 and its capacity is 2,000.

Architect David Ruhnau said he expects Holder to finish the job sometime during the summer.

“They are pretty experienced people,” he said. “If anybody can do it, they can.”

Guffanti wasn’t as optimistic.

“If Mr. Holder has something up his sleeve, now is the time to pull it out.”