More Schools--Just in Time

The Los Angeles school district is in a race against time to build 51 new schools to accommodate an enrollment that is closing in on 700,000 students and growing faster than expected. The building spree is projected to cost $1.8 billion; part of the funding will depend on a proposed statewide bond issue and at least half will come from local Proposition BB school bond construction funds, triggering the involvement of the vigilant BB oversight committee. That’s two pieces of good news--much of the local money is available and it has a very good chance of being well-spent.

The independent Proposition BB committee, in one of its first actions last year, appropriately refused the use of school bond funds for the controversial Belmont Learning Center. The new high school, under construction just west of downtown using other school money, is projected to be the most expensive public school ever built in California. That’s not likely to happen in any deal overseen by the BB committee and its chairman, Steve Soboroff.

Building a public school is often a slow, complicated and expensive proposition, especially in crowded cities. The school district admirably tries to avoid tearing down houses to make room for new schools. But open land is hard to find, with the exception of old industrial sites that often have toxic waste problems. For instance, the opening of the Jefferson New Middle School, in South-Central Los Angeles, was delayed for a year because the site was adjacent to a vacant lot contaminated with toxic waste. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control required the district to do more testing to prove the campus safe.

There are plenty of other causes of delay. A potential high school site, the old Ambassador Hotel in the Mid-Wilshire district, remains tied up in a legal battle years after the school district initially sought the property. Another potential primary school site, a parking lot near Slauson and Vermont avenues, sits vacant and unused, the target of competing interests. The school district cannot afford these legal delays, community conflicts or toxicity problems.

Public schools, by definition, can’t turn children away when campuses run out of room. With the supervision of the Proposition BB committee, the Los Angeles Unified School District needs to get its new schools built on schedule, without wasting taxpayers’ dollars or eroding public confidence.