Schools Face 2-Year Delay in Quake Repairs

Los Angeles city school officials said Monday it will take workers until the fall of 1996 to make an estimated $100 million in repairs needed for schools damaged in the Northridge earthquake--a delay of nearly two years because of federal red tape and the widespread nature of the damage.

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Sid Thompson had previously said repairs would be completed, or at least under way, by January, 1995. But Thompson and other district officials said Monday that the pace has been hampered by complicated federal-assistance paperwork and the large number of repair projects--more than 1,200 at about 300 campuses.

At a special Board of Education meeting Monday, members expressed disappointment at the slow pace even though the unfinished repairs pose no danger to students.

“I have trouble looking at the schools and saying, ‘By 1997 or ’98 . . . things will be fine,” said board President Mark Slavkin. “It’s not fast enough.”

Slavkin said federal officials had indicated shortly after the Jan. 17 quake that the government would “move mountains” to allocate money for school repairs.

“My sense now is that it’s gone back to the long, drawn-out process,” Slavkin said. “I don’t think the President is holding Cabinet meetings on how to repair the Los Angeles Unified School District. I think they’ve moved on to other things.”

District officials said they are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Office of Emergency Services to get the schools inspected and the repair projects funded. That process, however, has been more complicated and time-consuming than officials had anticipated.

Initial school inspections were finished just in the last month, officials said. In many cases, FEMA has required additional site inspections, especially for larger, more expensive projects.

The district does not want to proceed with repair projects until FEMA agrees to pay for the jobs, officials said.

“We’re trying to walk in step with FEMA so the district doesn’t end up owing a lot of money in the long run,” said Julie Crum, who oversees the district’s design and construction branch.

Monday’s meeting was the first time district officials gave an estimated cost of the district’s total earthquake damage. Doug Brown, who oversees the district’s facilities management branch, said he believes repairs could run even higher than $100 million.

Classroom buildings, gyms and lunch areas remain cordoned off at many campuses, mostly in the San Fernando Valley. Repair delays have upset many at Valley schools.

“If we can repair our freeways in the quickness that we did, what about schools?” said Bob Kladifko, the Reseda High School principal. A classroom building there is still unusable.

“Are freeways more important than kids? I don’t think so but that’s the question that parents are asking,” he said.

The earthquake seriously damaged about 150 schools, with 18 campuses closed for three or four weeks after the temblor.

Students from Van Gogh Elementary are still attending classes on the Frost Middle School campus. District officials say it will take until September, 1998, to rebuild Van Gogh.

El Camino Real and Kennedy high schools were each closed for six weeks. Kennedy’s administration building will not be rebuilt until August, 1998. At Cleveland High, an outdoor canopy serves as the lunchroom while the cafeteria remains closed.

Nearly half, or 20, of the city’s high school gymnasiums were closed after the quake, and 752 classrooms were declared unusable at 64 schools. In addition, 98 auditoriums and multipurpose rooms sustained significant damage.

District officials said 226 earthquake-repair projects have been completed or are under way, 435 are in the planning phase and 120 still need an engineering evaluation to satisfy federal requirements. Another 428 projects await FEMA approval.

FEMA has so far paid for about half of the needed repairs.

The most-costly repair projects have not yet been approved because the federal government requires several evaluations by qualified engineers and architects, district officials said. The district has hired about 455 workers for earthquake repairs. “We’ve been a revolving door in terms of hiring people,” said Margaret Scholl, who oversees the maintenance and operations branch.

But she said it has been difficult to find qualified professionals who will work in temporary positions. The district is continuing to hire outside contractors for the bulk of the earthquake-repair projects.

Aside from repairing damaged schools, the district also is trying to replace lighting and suspended ceilings at all its campuses. Officials said they trying to get federal funds for pay for those improvements, which would ostensibly make the schools safer during another earthquake.

* QUAKES RETURN: Three temblors shook the L.A. Basin on Monday night. B1