Students Sweat Out 1st Day of School in Portable Rooms

There was no electricity Thursday in teacher Vongin Lipock’s first-grade classroom at Westmont Elementary. Fran Garland’s third-grade class at Valley View didn’t have power either, nor did classes on eight other Ocean View School District campuses.

On a sweltering first day of school, 23 portable classrooms in this coastal district were without air conditioners, fans or lights.

The reason is that the portables arrived last month, much sooner than the expected October delivery date. Once the units, also called “relocatables,” were on campuses, the district rushed to get them into use so that classes would not have to meet temporarily in libraries and computer labs.

“We were lucky we got them early,” Assistant Supt. Patricia Young said. “There’s so much enthusiasm that the relocatables are here and that schools have begun to use them.”

That means hassles, though, as teachers contend with stuffy rooms and dim lighting while administrators try to coordinate work on the units with students’ class schedules.

Ocean View’s architect, Paul Westberg, said last-minute facilities problems are rampant statewide as school districts scramble to reduce class sizes to 20 pupils per teacher. Demand for portable units is so great that delivery is sporadic, and there is a shortage of workers to do the required installations.

“We’ve got a dead stall in contractors when there’s a boom in the marketplace,” Westberg said. “I work with 22 school districts, and such problems are not unique.”

Temperatures climbing toward 100 degrees concerned parents, though, some of whom said the situation is unacceptable.

“The kids should not have to sit there in the dark,” said Terri Teramura, whose children attend Village View. “It’s great that we have the portables and that the superintendent went to 20-to-1. . . . But it’s a shame that they couldn’t get the electricity in by now.

“The district paid a contractor to revamp all the lights throughout school to make them all energy efficient. I think they could move quicker if they made this a priority.”

Teachers, meanwhile, are making do with ingenuity and other resources.

Without an overhead projector, Village View second-grade teacher Pat Young strolled around her classroom Thursday, holding up the lesson work sheet.

Though many teachers ended up reading aloud to their students so the youngsters would not strain their eyes, some saw a bright spot in the situation.

“Even though we were without light, my first day went much smoother today than it ever has in the past,” Young said, speculating that the dim lighting made her students calmer than usual.

Other teachers ventured outside their classrooms to libraries or assembly rooms when they needed to show videos, use electrical equipment or escape the heat in rooms lacking air-conditioning, school officials said.

Some classes spent the latter part of the day in breezy areas outdoors.

“Teachers can rotate back and forth from various rooms,” Ocean View Supt. James Tarwater said. “We’re working as fast as we can. It’s just unfortunate the hottest spell hits us when the school year begins.”

As crews worked swiftly to hook up the units, school officials said they expect most of these classrooms to be completed by the end of next week. Westmont’s four portable classrooms, however, probably won’t get electricity until Sept. 19, the assistant superintendent said.

“Each day, someone new will be powered up,” Young said. “We’ve contacted the contractor and asked to get additional electrical contractors out here.”