New Library’s Awkward Chapter

The field trip that a group of Los Angeles schoolchildren took Friday was one for the books.

Forty first- and second-graders walked past the library at their gleaming school campus just west of the Harbor Freeway and trudged nearly a mile to the public library in downtown Los Angeles hunting for something to read.

The reason? There aren’t enough books at Gratts Elementary School for them to take home.

Officials who spent $13 million building the Lucas Avenue campus three years ago ran out of money before they bought enough classroom texts and library books to go around.

So teachers scramble to duplicate lesson materials on the school’s lone photocopier, swap sets of textbooks among themselves and regularly walk their students to the Central Library so children can check out books.

“We come every three weeks--when the books are due back,” said Kathy Ham, who escorted her classroom of first- and second-graders to the downtown library Friday.

Teacher Heather Moore said the school had no textbooks when it opened in 1996. Students in kindergarten through third grade still lack math, science and social studies texts and just recently received language arts books.

“The school is a beautiful place. We have computers and everything. But teaching is a challenge without books,” Moore said as her students selected materials from the downtown library’s shelves.

Gratts’ library is built to hold about 25,000 books, but only about 1,000 volumes are on its shelves.

That means the school’s 950 students are not allowed to check anything out, said Principal Raul Fernandez.

The book shortage is due to the skimpy equipment and supply allocation that the school received when it opened, he said.

“It’s the state formula. We had $300,000 to purchase tables, chairs, library equipment,” he added. Gratts administrators elected to spend $20,000 of that on library books.

Since then, the school has received $3,000 from the district and $4,000 from the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce for books, Fernandez said. And teachers, led by fifth-grade instructor Tim Adams, are applying for grants for more.

Gratts’ book shortage has embarrassed Los Angeles Unified School District administrators.

“I don’t know what happened. Something’s wrong,” said Bonnie O’Brian, who heads the district’s school library program from an office only a few hundred yards from Gratts.

She speculates that school-level administrators underestimated the cost of books.

“We’re horrified, because we’re right across the street from Gratts. It’s a nice school, but they don’t have anything in it,” O’Brian said.

The district’s policy calls for 18 library books per student. At an average price of $20 per book, it would cost more than $300,000 to fully stock the Gratts library.

Other officials said a boost in state funding for textbooks and library books may solve Gratts’ shortage by next summer, however.

Janet Minami, director of instructional media for the district, said legislation signed by Gov. Pete Wilson allocates $157.5 million for new library books and an extra $250 million per year for the next four years for textbooks.

Statewide, that translates to an average of $27 per student for library books and about $50 for textbooks, she said.

“We feel badly about Gratts,” Minami said, adding that the district has adopted a new policy that promises “adequate start-up funds” for libraries at future new schools.

Back at the public library, meantime, the students were busy checking out books with their own library cards. Each was allowed to take home three books so they wouldn’t be weighed down on the walk back to school.

Devan Spann, 5, checked out books about Batman and Superman. Becky Mercedes, 7, selected one on frogs.

Jesse Alvarez, 7, chose “Salt Water Habitats,” “Sharks” and “Sea Turtles.”

“We’re going to the beach next week and I want to learn about them,” he said.

“We don’t have any science books at school.”