Schedule to Cool Off Schools to Be Decided

Los Angeles Unified School District officials and the companies chosen to install air conditioning in dozens of campuses were to meet today to begin mapping out a construction schedule and whether a majority of the work can be done by Sept. 1.

Eighty-eight schools in the Valley have been targeted by the district to be cooled by the fall, but exactly when the work will begin is to be hammered out over the next two weeks, along with other business arrangements.

Supt. Ruben Zacarias earlier this week chose two utility consortiums to perform the work, but the district has yet to sign contracts with the companies--Energy Alliance and PG&E; Energy Services/CH2M Hill. Both groups have pledged to install air conditioning by March 1999 in 285 public schools lacking cooling systems, but now must set down their promises in writing.

“It’s a matter of sitting down and putting the puzzle together,” said Energy Alliance’s Rick Ellis. “We will come up with a plan on how to get these [projects] executed.”

Zacarias’ selection of the companies Wednesday brought to a close an eight-month competition among firms vying for the lucrative contract, to be paid for with funds from the $2.4-billion bond measure adopted by voters last year. The winning bidders agreed to work together and cut their price by several million dollars to $234 million.

Work will begin after the proposal is approved by the Board of Education, which is scheduled to consider the matter Feb. 9, said Energy Alliance Program Manager Michael Dochterman. Construction is expected to last an average of three weeks at each campus.

But the groups have plenty of work ahead before their crews step foot on any campuses. Several issues need to be ironed out, including the question of how to integrate air-conditioning installation with other repairs.

The Valley’s schools are among 195 in the first two phases of the air-conditioning program.

A large number of Valley schools are up first because they operate on year-round schedules and have average classroom summer temperatures of 90 degrees, with air conditioning in less than a third of their classrooms, school district officials said.