Vote Delayed on La Verne Heights School

The school board for the Bonita Unified School District Wednesday night postponed a vote on renovating the district’s oldest elementary school after one board member accused the district administration of repeated financial mismanagement.

“I will not support modernization of La Verne Heights (Elementary) till someone can convince me we know what the hell we’re doing,” said Robert Green, who called for an immediate audit of what he termed excessive architecture fees paid on construction projects in the district, which serves La Verne and most of San Dimas.

Green said the district’s newest school, opened in December, was excessively expensive. As recently as December, 1989, the administrators estimated that building the new school, in growing north La Verne, would cost $4.25 million of a $7-million bond issue.

The bond money was also intended to finance part of the La Verne Heights renovation and pay for air conditioning at other district schools.

The new school has consumed closer to $6.2 million, Green said. “Don’t tell me that was because costs went up,” he said. “Costs didn’t go up that much.”

Assistant Supt. Karen Willett stuck by her earlier estimate that the almost-completed school will cost between $5.3 and $5.5 million. Although the proposed La Verne Heights renovation has to be scaled back, the main culprit is not the new school but a decline in home-building, which resulted in the district collecting less in developer’s fees, Willett said.

In December, the district canceled plans to build a new cafeteria at La Verne Heights to replace a portable building used since 1988. But most of the renovation could still take place with the $1.1 million the board has authorized spending, Willett said.

La Verne Heights students have been temporarily attending the new, unnamed school since December. The new school, however, was intended to serve north La Verne pupils, many of whom are currently being bused to crowded schools in other parts of the city.

Many parents still question the wisdom of what they consider a partial renovation. “This is backwards still to me,” said PTA representative Jolene Roselauf. “It brings us back to the ‘50s, and this is the ‘90s.”

Willett agreed that the La Verne Heights campus needs work. “It’s a convoluted campus,” she said. “There’s no center to it.”

At Wednesday’s board meeting, held in the library of San Dimas High School, Willett presented alternate plans, which called for part of the La Verne Heights school to be torn down and the rest reorganized with portable buildings. But each of the plans exceeded the $1.1-million ceiling.

The board could make a final decision as early as next week. Administrators say that they still hope to begin a renovation plan in time for an improved La Verne Heights to reopen in time for next fall’s classes.