Pacing Patience to Quake Repairs

For Los Angeles Unified School District teachers still locked out of their classrooms nearly three years after the Northridge earthquake, the pace of repairs to damaged buildings can seem slow and frustrating. In fact, though, the district has moved swiftly to make repairs--and while conditions for some teachers and students remain uncomfortable and inconvenient, the vast majority of repairs to San Fernando Valley schools are wrapped up.

Three-quarters of the schools damaged by the Northridge quake have been fixed. So far, repairs have been made to 3,944 of the 5,333 school district buildings affected by the quake. Fixes on another 727 are underway. That’s not a bad record, given the vastness of the task and the fact that scores of residents have yet to finish repairs on their own homes. Even so, two dozen schools in the Valley have repairs outstanding--from full reconstruction of buildings to minor patch jobs.

The school district is victim to the same circumstances that have delayed repairs on many private homes. District administrators moved quickly to get repair projects up and running. But there were delays getting federal funding. Now, all but two projects have the money they need. The problem now is finding the necessary engineers, architects and contractors to get the work started. That may take several months. District administrators estimate that all schools should be back to normal by 1998--although many principals and teachers are less optimistic.

There’s no doubt that the current situation is a hassle--or that students, school workers and teachers have ample grounds to be upset. At Encino Elementary School, for instance, kids are crammed into portable classrooms because a two-story building still has not been fixed. At Cleveland High, cafeteria workers wheel out 60-pound food warmers every day for breakfast, lunch and a break because of an unstable building foundation. A little more patience is the only answer. A tremendous amount of work is finished. The balance will be done soon.