L.A. Unified Has No Plan for Seismic Upgrades

Mark Twain Middle School, built half a century ago, will receive long-overdue upgrades such as air conditioning and roof repairs, thanks to Los Angeles voters who approved $2.4 billion in school improvements in 1997.

Proposition BB, however, does not address the seismic stability of Twain or the buildings on the 687 other campuses in the state’s largest district. The Los Angeles Unified School District is one of many that have spent millions of dollars on modernization and deferred maintenance projects without examining the overall seismic fitness of theirbuildings.

Vilas Mujumdar, operations chief of the Division of the State Architect, says costly building improvements may be wasted if structural deficiencies go undetected. “If you spend millions on modernization and then the buildings become nonfunctional [after an earthquake], why have you bothered to modernize?” he asked.

Mujumdar suggested that districts could earmark a portion of bond issues for seismic retrofitting. “That would solve many, many problems,” he said.

District officials said they have no plans to survey their buildings or upgrade them to current school construction standards until the state Legislature or regulators direct them to do so. “We fully conform with the state building code,” said Mike Bargman, assistant chief of facilities and design for the district. “I think our buildings are in pretty good shape. We went through Northridge and had some serious damage but nothing collapsed.”

But, he added, “I’m sure that all districts would be in favor of retrofitting buildings if someone were to pay for it.”

Bob Donald, the district’s acting director of design and inspection, said proposed state legislation for a schools study is “a step in the right direction. I don’t think anybody would say we shouldn’t have the safest buildings for our children.”

If the state mandates a study, the district has already taken the first step by computerizing an inventory of 6,078 permanent buildings after the Northridge quake. By contrast, some other districts contacted for this article said they could not provide details on their buildings. And a few had not retained original construction plans.

Mujumdar said that if Los Angeles school officials took the initiative to identify and fix problem buildings, they could inspire other districts. “They would be in a leadership position, frankly,” he said. “They could demonstrate that ‘we are the largest district with the biggest problems, and we did it.’ ”