Construction Delays Start of Oak Park Elementary School : Education: The district says working parents will be offered free child care and bus service during the eight days.

For 257 students at Red Oak Elementary School in Oak Park, this summer seems truly endless.

Officials of the Oak Park Unified School District have postponed their first day of school from Tuesday to Sept. 20. District officials opted to delay the beginning of classes rather than scramble to get the still unfinished school ready in time.

Students will make up the eight days of lost class time during the school year.

“This will enable students to move into the school when it is safe and when it is ready,” Oak Park Supt. Marilyn Lippiatt said Wednesday.

She said working parents who need child care will be able to get it for free, during school hours, from the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. The school district will provide free bus service to and from the Red Oak site and the Rancho Simi child-care center at Mae Boyar Park.

Parents will pay as usual for before- and after-school care at the program, Lippiatt said.

All other Oak Park schools will open Tuesday as scheduled.

Officials made the decision Tuesday night after meeting with a small group of Red Oak teachers and parents. Lippiatt said delaying school was the least disruptive alternative. Other proposals included holding split sessions at the nearby Oak Hills Elementary School or renting another building.

Six of the eight makeup days will take place during teacher training days when the school normally would be shut down. On those days, Lippiatt said, the district will hire substitute teachers for the Red Oak staff.

She said another two days will be made up by reducing vacations. Parents and teachers will decide which vacations will be trimmed.

Assistant Supt. Stan Mantooth said the delay will cost several thousand dollars--money the district intends to charge to its primary contractor, Aurora Modular Industries of Riverside, which it blames for failing to meet construction deadlines.

The cost of hiring substitute teachers at Red Oak is about $1,000 a day, Mantooth said. The district will spend about $1,600 for bus service from the Red Oak site to Mae Boyar Park. He said the cost of the free child-care program has not yet been determined.

Aurora President Mike Henning said his company does not deserve total blame for the delay.

“Are we at fault? Partly. Are we without blame? No. Are we solely at fault? No,” Henning said. “I don’t think they’re treating us fairly. We’re still planning on getting the project done. If they try to hang the whole thing on us, they’re probably going to find some resistance.”

Henning said workers were still trying to get the school ready to open on Tuesday.

Mantooth said the delay may prove to be even more expensive to Aurora, which makes prefabricated units that are bolted together to make buildings. Modular units were used to build the initial 14 classrooms at Red Oak.

The district had planned to hire Aurora to build another nine classrooms at Red Oak this school year at a cost of at least $600,000, Mantooth said. “At this point in time I don’t know if we’re going to do business with them,” he said.

Henning laughed at Mantooth’s comment, saying the school district would have difficulty justifying a decision to dismiss Aurora’s low bid on the project.

Also this year, the district will construct a large permanent building that will house the Red Oak office, lunchroom and a large community room. Aurora is not involved in that contract.

Judi Barlowe Fields, president of the school’s Parent-Faculty Assn., said the district’s decision to pay for child care will make the delay more acceptable to working parents.

“When you tell them school is not going to open until Sept. 20, you can hear the momentary silence,” Fields said. “Then you add that they have this wonderful program where the kids can go to Rancho Simi day care, and you hear a sigh and ‘That’s great.’ ”

All Red Oak parents have been invited to a meeting at 7 tonight at Oak Hills Elementary to discuss the school’s belated opening.