9 Schools Won’t Get Promised Air Conditioning

Nine year-round schools in the East San Fernando Valley that were promised air conditioning are among 45 that will not be getting it because state funds will not arrive in time, Los Angeles school district officials said.

The disclosure, made at the Board of Education meeting Monday, elicited anger and disappointment from board members and principals.

“We made a promise and now we can’t keep it,” said school board member Roberta Weintraub, who represents the East Valley. “We’re the ones who have to go back and face those schoolchildren as they swelter through the summer.”

Added school board President Rita Walters: “Our credibility is going to be zilch.”

“We were sadly surprised,” Oxnard Street Elementary School Principal Dennis Hovey said Tuesday. “It was our understanding that the air-conditioning money had been set aside. We were supposed to have workmen out here this month and the system ready by July. I don’t know what we’ll do now.”

In January, the school board promised that, by this summer, all classrooms in schools on a year-round schedule would be air conditioned. There are 93 year-round schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, 13 of which are in the East Valley. Most of the year-round schools use the 12-month schedule to accommodate the fast-growing student population.

Board members said they made their promise based on their belief that $24.1 million in state funds would be in district coffers by now. But the state has sent only $4.5 million, which has been allocated for air conditioning at 11 schools. The district will get the rest of the money, but it will not arrive in time to meet the summer 1987 deadline.

State officials said the money was delayed because they do not have it all. Some will come from state bonds that have not been sold, the rest from fines levied against corporate polluters. That money cannot be allocated until state and federal guidelines for distribution have been established, state officials said.

Year-round schools in the Valley awaiting air conditioning, all elementaries, are: Camellia Avenue, Fair Avenue and Oxnard Street, all in North Hollywood; Roscoe in Sun Valley; Van Nuys; Haddon Avenue, Montague Street and Pacoima, all in Pacoima; and Vaughn Street in San Fernando.