Prop. BB Panel Criticizes Board OK of Bungalow Plan

Members of the volunteer committee that oversees $2.4 billion in school bond repairs accused the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday of using the veil of a closed session to defy one of its recommendations.

In a letter to school officials, committee Chairman Steven Soboroff demanded that the school board reconsider its vote late Monday authorizing the purchase of 57 two-story bungalows to relieve overcrowding.

The committee, which oversees funds approved a year ago under Proposition BB, voted May 13 to recommend a limited trial of the prefab classrooms, which are more expensive than ordinary buildings and have not been used in the district before.

“I think this is a case of squandering BB dollars,” Deputy Los Angeles Controller Timothy Lynch, vice chairman of the committee, said Tuesday. “If they didn’t have BB dollars, they wouldn’t have made this decision.”

After months of jockeying between the advisory committee and the board, Monday’s vote, following a closed-session discussion, was the first in which school board members overruled a recommendation of the committee, created by voters when they approved the largest school bond in the nation’s history in April 1997.

Though the board is not bound by the committee’s decisions, until Monday it had always deferred. Last year, for example, the board acceded to the committee’s recommendation against using BB funds for the Belmont Learning Complex.

Committee members said Tuesday they were outraged not only that the board ignored their will, but did so without a public discussion.

District lawyers placed the question on the secret portion of Monday’s agenda on the grounds that it related to litigation. Discussions of matters being disputed in court are exempt from the state’s public meeting law. The bungalows are covered by a consent decree that resulted from a lawsuit over the inequality of school campuses from such causes as overcrowding.

“We feel reevaluation and open discussion of this issue is warranted,” Soboroff wrote in a letter to board President Julie Korenstein and Supt. Ruben Zacarias.

A spokesman for Zacarias said it is up to Korenstein whether to reconsider. Korenstein was unavailable for comment.

The dispute covers only the two-story bungalows. The bond oversight committee gave its assent to the purchase of 417 single-story bungalows, which were also authorized by the board Monday.