Damaged High Schools’ Reopening Delayed

El Camino Real and John F. Kennedy high schools will not open on Tuesday, but will probably resume classes the following week, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said Friday.

District spokeswoman Diana Munatones said that while 60 temporary classrooms have been delivered to Kennedy, 30 still need to be installed and furnished. El Camino, she said, is still awaiting 25 portable bungalows, which school officials expect to receive during the weekend.

The district has not set a new start date, but principals of both schools, which were damaged in last month’s earthquake, have said they will try to resume regular classes in the days after Feb. 22.

In their first announcements about the two most heavily damaged high schools, district officials said the two schools were unlikely to open before March 7. But facing heavy criticism from parents--and a promise from the state to install portable classrooms in time to open both campuses Tuesday--the district pledged to redouble efforts to repair the two schools.

District officials said that significant damage to both schools make them unsafe.

Children at Van Gogh Street Elementary School in Granada Hills will resume classes Tuesday, but not in their usual classrooms, which were split by cracks after the quake. The children are instead sharing a separate part of Frost Middle School.

Although the Van Gogh building was deemed safe by inspectors, district officials have questioned the integrity of the ground under it. No decision has been made about the permanent status of the Van Gogh campus, Munatones said.