School Officials Say Toll Is Worse Than Feared : Education: Widespread damage is found. District leaders worry about getting fair share of rebuilding aid.

At Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, five-foot-wide holes have been punched in the Administration Building, and debris and glass coat the floors. At nearby Danube Avenue Elementary, gas lines have snapped, the boiler is broken and four bungalows have been knocked off their foundations. At Northridge’s Nobel Middle School, the student bus shelter could topple at any minute.

“We’re now seeing losses we weren’t even aware of on Monday or Tuesday,” said a frazzled Danube Principal Rosemary Enzer.

Weary Los Angeles Unified School District officials face an increasingly daunting task of rebuilding after the devastating 6.6 magnitude Northridge earthquake. Each day it has become clearer that the district lacks the cash and the work force to tackle the enormous repairs, which officials estimate could cost up to $700 million.

“We can’t even go out and bid for repairs because we don’t have the money,” school board President Leticia Quezada said as all campuses remained closed Thursday.

Quezada and others are fearful that school reconstruction may get short shrift when it comes to distributing emergency federal and state aid. Los Angeles school officials could not even get on the agenda to speak during President Clinton’s two-hour meeting with local elected officials Wednesday.

“I have a general concern that there will be a competition between the cities, county, state and school districts,” said school board member Jeff Horton, who represents parts of the San Fernando Valley and the Westside. “Everyone is saying their needs are greater.”

Unlike Caltrans--which can dispatch an army of engineers and workers to immediately begin shoring up roadways--the nation’s second-largest school district has dismally few workers to clean up and repair up to 300 quake-battered schools.

Supt. Sid Thompson will announce today the plans for next week. Officials said they are leaning toward opening safe schools to teachers and staff on Monday and bringing students back on Tuesday.

In a system with thousands of buildings scattered over 700 square miles, only six staff engineers are available to conduct inspections, a force that was bolstered by mid-week with another 20 from state and other agencies.

A maintenance staff of less than 1,000 has been working virtually around the clock at the district’s 640 campuses doing light repairs--rewiring, cleanup, tearing down damaged ceiling tiles, boarding windows. But despite their work inside creaking buildings, officials said maintenance workers are stretched thin and not equipped to carry out reconstruction.

“They’re basically doing triage,” said school board member Mark Slavkin, who toured hard-hit campuses Thursday. “When there’s an immediate threat, they’re dealing with it. But they’re not able to stick around and do the other repairs that are needed. Every school I’ve seen needs major repair work.”

The fates of about 124 schools in the Valley and a few on the Westside were still being decided late Thursday, and detailed, classroom-by-classroom assessments were being assembled. Doug Brown, chief of district facilities, estimates that it could take up to two years to complete reconstruction.

But some school board members say the schools--particularly in the Valley--will not be ready to open Monday.

“I can’t even begin to imagine that we will have schools ready--certainly at the west end of the Valley--by Monday,” said board member Julie Korenstein, who represents most of the Valley.

Korenstein said she has proposed that district staff examine closed school sites in the Valley that might be able to house some students. About a dozen schools were closed due to declining enrollments in the early 1980s.

The goal of the district is to keep as many students as possible at their regular schools to avoid disrupting their schedules.

With a myriad of health and safety laws that regulate schools, reopening even a portion of a lightly damaged campus involves a tangle of logistics and community concerns.

“It’s like an onion. You keep pulling back the layers and you find another humongous problem,” Horton said.

At 61-year-old Canoga Park Elementary--one of the oldest in the district--wide cracks riddle the walls of the main building, and classrooms have been flooded by broken pipes.

And at Lawrence Middle School, the cafeteria is unusable because a large vent near the boiler has fallen. With scores of children dependent on schools as their primary source of food, the cafeteria woes at Lawrence and other schools have the district’s massive staff of food service workers scrambling to find other facilities for producing cold meals.

Then there are the textbooks and other materials that have been lost, mainly because of water damage. Many books and materials were already in short supply because of budget cuts.

While district officials attempted to keep pace with the problems, some criticized school authorities for not moving fast enough and grumbled that safe schools should have opened this week.

“If we’re able to inspect freeways and the (Los Angeles Roman Catholic) Archdiocese can inspect churches, why does the entire school system need to be shut down for so long?” said Eli Brent, the president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, which represents most of the district’s middle managers and principals.

But Brown and other top administrators staunchly defend their decision to keep all campuses closed, saying it is far better to err on the side of safety when it comes to children.

Perhaps the most complex planning operation is taking place in a sprawling warehouse-like structure on Soto Street in East Los Angeles, home to the largest school bus operation in the nation.

Every school day 80,000 students board 1,000 buses to travel to school along 2,200 different routes throughout the region. About 30,000 children are bused into, out of and around the San Fernando Valley.

Teams of transportation workers have been huddled around maps and routes all week, determining the safest roads for children.

When Valley schools do begin to open, thousands of inner-city children whose neighborhood campuses are overcrowded will have to endure longer commutes to safe classrooms. Pickup times will remain the same.

Unfortunately, district officials said, parents of bused students will not be able to transfer their children to schools close to home.

“We wish we could have that option, but it’s a question of lack of space in the inner city, which is why those kids are being transported to begin with--with or without earthquakes,” said Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias.

School officials cautioned that the web of plans being spun is delicate, imperfect and prone to unravel with the jolt of an aftershock.

“There’s not a chance we’ll get these schools ready and in perfect shape by Monday,” said United Teachers-Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein. “Everyone will be needed. I think students are going to be put into operation.”

Making a School Safe Again

Three Los Angeles school district safety inspectors examined Robert Frost Middle School in Granada Hills for earthquake damage. They looked for hazards to school personnel and students. One inspector expects the school to open Monday after initial repairs. The school got off relatively easy, as other schools may be closed for at least a month. This inspection is typical of what is happening at other area schools.

SCRUTINIZING THE FACILITIES

1. Exterior of building is checked for major cracks, signs of instability.

2. Interiors are inspected for cracks and loose or exposed wiring. The boiler room is checked for breakage is smoke ducts and gas lines.

3. Beams are examined to determine roof stability.

REPAIRING THE DAMAGE

Columns: Some have slipped, creating danger of roof collapse over entrance into classroom. The fix: Take roof off over entrance and replace in 5-8 months.

Pipes: In one classroom, overhead sprinkler system pipes have burst, causing water damage. The fix: Replace leaking pipes, clean up water and replace carpet.

Cracks: They have formed in middle of floor and outside of one building near base. Indicates that building has sunk half an inch. Doors: As a result of sinking, frame is warped, so door does not open easily. The fix: Patch cracks and shore up sunken end as necessary, to be determined by structural engineer. Wiring and plumbing could be affected.

Lights: Fluorescent fixtures have fallen down, exposing broken wires, causing electrocution danger. The fix: Replace broken lights and reconnect wires.

Beams: Thick bolts holding beams supporting walkway roofs were strained. The fix: Replace bolts with longer ones to add stability.

Researched by KAY HWANGBO / Los Angeles Times