EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Damage to Schools Nears $5 Million : Simi Valley: Structural repairs will not be as extensive as feared. The district, like most, lacks earthquake insurance.

Simi Valley school buildings suffered nearly $5 million in damage in Monday’s earthquake, officials estimated Thursday.

But damage at the most seriously affected schools was not as bad as initially believed, they said, and all district schools could be open by the middle of next week.

“Our structural repairs are not as extensive as we had anticipated,” Simi Valley Supt. Mary Beth Wolford said.

Like most homeowners, Ventura County school districts have no earthquake insurance to cover the cost of repairing cracked buildings, crumbling plaster, fallen tiles and shattered light fixtures from the temblor.

So districts with damaged schools will join residents and business owners who hope for federal and state assistance to bail them out. The districts will appeal to the state Department of Education and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Even before the quake, Simi Valley school board members were debating how to trim a $2.5-million deficit from the district’s $77.1-million budget.

Fillmore and Conejo Valley unified school districts received lesser damage, at $175,000 and $400,000, respectively, but they also hope to recover as much of the cleanup and repair costs as possible to avoid deepening their budget problems, officials said.

“We’re struggling,” Fillmore Supt. David Haney said. “It’s real, real bleak. We’re going to have much bigger cuts if we don’t get some help, but I’m optimistic that we will get help.”

Earthquake insurance has proven too expensive for schools to afford, even though all 20 of the public districts in Ventura County pool their resources to get a better deal on insurance coverage, said Paul Wilhelmsen, executive director of the Ventura County Schools Self-Funding Authority.

Last year, the authority’s board was quoted a one-year cost of $550,000 for quake insurance, to be spread among the districts according to size, Wilhelmsen said. At that price, the deductible for each district would be $50,000, he said.

“The cost for earthquake insurance is quite high, and the school districts have felt that they could rely on state and federal government aid,” Wilhelmsen said.

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“It just doesn’t pencil out,” Haney agreed.

Most school districts in the state do not carry earthquake insurance because of the cost, Wilhelmsen said. Also, if school districts had earthquake insurance they might not qualify for government aid after a disaster, he said.

Ventura County schools are covered through existing policies for fires or floods that might occur as a result of an earthquake, Conejo Valley Assistant Supt. Sarah Hart said. Those are more common than structural damage from the shaking, Hart said.

“We want to be covered as far as what we feel is fiscally responsible, but we also need to be fiscally prudent,” Hart said.