One-Fourth of Schools’ Quake Repairs Undone

About one-quarter of the repair jobs to city schools damaged by the Northridge earthquake remain undone as Los Angeles school officials continue to haggle with the federal government for all the promised funding for repairs.

But Los Angeles Unified School District officials say that by 1998 all repairs are expected to be complete.

With the exception of major projects at a handful of San Fernando Valley schools, most of the remaining work is cosmetic, plaster patching and painting, officials say.

“Almost all of the repairs are funded and three-quarters are under [construction] or have been completed,” Margaret A. Scholl, director of the district’s earthquake recovery program, told board members at a meeting to review the status of repairs to school buildings.

About 5,500 school district buildings sustained about $150 million damage in the predawn 1994 temblor, with Valley schools suffering the most.

Classrooms, auditoriums and gymnasiums were the hardest hit when ceiling tiles and lights shook loose. At Reseda High School, for example, chunks of the ceiling collapsed onto the seats in the school’s auditorium, which has been closed ever since. Repair work on the auditorium ceiling began recently.

Kennedy High School and Van Gogh Street Elementary School in Granada Hills also sustained major damage. Kennedy’s three-story administration building, which housed 20 classrooms, could not be repaired and was demolished. Rebuilding it will cost more than $7 million. Van Gogh had so much damage that it needs to be completely rebuilt.

Work at those two schools will not be completed until 1998, district officials said.

The district and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been at odds over paying for earthquake repairs.

To date, FEMA has approved $105 million of the $150 million the district requested. Scholl said the district is expected to receive from $20 million to $40 million more, but she could not say when. The district also has received $50 million of the $160 million it requested for hazard mitigation, repairing lights and retrofitting schools to minimize problems in future earthquakes.

Before the district receives federal money, FEMA inspectors must visit each school where work is needed and write damage survey reports, detailing the repairs required and projected costs.

The district and FEMA must review the reports--along with state emergency services authorities--before FEMA authorizes release of the repair money. On the bigger and more expensive projects, such as that at Kennedy High, FEMA routinely asks for more detailed architectural and engineering reviews before granting funds.

Julie Crum, director of design and inspection for the district, said FEMA officials have given the OK for most of the repair projects. Crum estimated that by January, major repairs at several Valley schools will be completed. That includes work at Cleveland High School in Reseda and San Fernando Elementary School, among others. By next summer, Crum said, she expects twice as many repairs to be completed, and all work to be finished by 1998.