Damaged High Schools Pushing to Reopen Early : Education: State-issued bungalows and hundreds of desks are being brought to El Camino Real and Kennedy campuses. Officials hope to have the makeshift classrooms ready this month.

Crews are working feverishly to install 150 state-issue classroom bungalows and hundreds of new desks at El Camino Real and Kennedy high schools in hopes of reopening the earthquake-damaged campuses this month, officials said Tuesday.

Supt. Sid Thompson said Monday that the two hardest-hit high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District would not reopen before March, but Kennedy Principal Andreda Pruitt said she is determined to beat that date by two weeks.

“We’ll start as early as we can,” said Pruitt. “I’m working on a daily basis. I’m hoping to open Feb. 15.”

Pruitt said that parents have voiced strong criticism of the district decision to keep the two high schools-with a combined enrollment of about 5,000 students--closed until March 7. Parents have said they want their children to return to the campuses rather than be scattered to schools around the city, and that the seven-week break seemed excessive.

Thompson said resuming classes at the two high schools depends on obtaining the portable classrooms and new desks. El Camino has 20 bungalows already in place and is expecting another 60 in the next two weeks. Kennedy has 30 bungalows and expects another 40 in the same period.

“These two schools will be bungalow cities,” Thompson said at a news conference. “But they keep these young people at their school sites--it’s what they wanted and it’s what their parents wanted.”

Doug Brown, the district’s facilities director, said the state is trucking the bungalows from throughout California and sending crews to install them. Brown said putting each portable classroom in place costs $100,000, but costs will be shared by the state and the federal government.

The portable classrooms will take up athletic field space at both campuses, requiring some sports teams to be relocated. Kennedy’s basketball team has already been practicing at Porter Middle School and El Camino will move practices to nearby campuses.

Although El Camino has no structural damage, classroom partition walls were loosened and could collapse. Kennedy’s three-story Administration Building was damaged and will need reconstruction.

Pruitt said that Kennedy’s Granada Hills campus could reopen with protective barriers around the damaged Administration Building, which also includes about 20 classrooms. Some records located in the administration offices might never be retrieved, but student cumulative records are safe.

The district plans to hold interim tutorial classes at both campuses, and transportation will be provided for students bused from other parts of the city.

Harriet Sculley, president of the 31st District Parent Teacher Student Assn., which covers the San Fernando Valley, said she believes the district has the opportunity to develop creative programs for displaced students during the break. But she said the district should focus on the needs of all students, not just the high-achieving, college-bound group who in some cases have already been meeting informally in teachers’ homes.

Thompson said buses will be provided for students outside the Valley to reach the distant campuses and attend programs to include college advisement as well as academic lessons. He said the district is also discussing the possibility of having some students attend classes in neighboring districts and in schools closer to their homes.

Of the 2,700 students at El Camino, 900 are bused in. Of the 2,300 students at Kennedy, about 1,000 are bused to school.

“I don’t want to say that all of this is being done for the youngster who is going to make it anyway,” Thompson said. “We want to talk about the alternatives for the average student.”

In other developments Tuesday, Thompson said the district will reopen five schools today: Cantara Elementary, Danube Avenue Elementary, El Oro Way Elementary, Encino Elementary and Frost Middle School. He also said the district has not firmly decided to abandon the Van Gogh Street Elementary School site, which has large fissures throughout the campus.

Instead, Thompson said, the school’s students will be relocated, probably to Frost, and an extensive geological study will be done.

* LIST OF SCHOOL REOPENINGS: B2