School Officials Upset by Delays in Quake Repair Funds

Los Angeles Unified School District officials expressed concern Monday that the federal government has not yet funded many of the largest repair projects for schools damaged by the Northridge quake.

In all, 5,400 projects have been approved or completed at a cost of $70 million. But the 1,000 remaining include 125 seriously damaged buildings that could cost an estimated $60 million more to repair. Most are in the San Fernando Valley; none currently house students.

“These are buildings the schools can’t use: auditoriums, cafeterias, classrooms, gymnasiums,” said Margaret Scholl, the district’s earthquake recovery director.

The two major hitches cited by school administrators are a turnover in staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in part as people were diverted to floods and other more recent disasters, and a basic disagreement over who should foot the bill for bringing older schools up to stricter state building codes.

Administrators said they noted a burst of federal grant approvals at the time of the quake anniversary, after FEMA Director James Lee Witt visited Los Angeles. Witt received a commendation from the school board during that trip, when he also agreed to look into delays reported by board members.

On Monday, Supt. Sid Thompson said he would call Witt today to try to speed up the process again.

“As patient as our schools have been, it wears thin after a while,” board member Julie Korenstein said. “It’s a really serious situation.”