Privatization of School Construction to Be Tested

Los Angeles school officials agreed Friday to test a new method of school construction and allow private developers to build a limited number of primary centers.

Following basic specifications from the Los Angeles Unified School District, the developers would finance the construction with bank loans and sell the completed schools to the district.

“We are looking to try some pilot projects to see if the concept works,” said Howard Miller, the district’s chief operating officer.

The decision came after a meeting with members of a task force set up by Mayor Richard Riordan to assist the district in building schools for kindergarten through third grade.

The chairman of that task force proposed the privatization of school building as a way to overcome bureaucratic delays, which set back the group’s goal of opening 20 new primary centers in two years. Only four of those schools have opened in 2 1/2 years.

Task force members said they were pleased with the district’s response.

“Now we have a new administration that is willing to listen and be creative with us,” said Assistant Deputy Mayor Veronica Davey.

Miller, who took over the district’s school building efforts last year, views primary centers as the key element of the district’s plan to create 120,000 new classroom seats in the next six years.

He has called for construction of 150 of the small schools. Seats would be added in higher grades by converting existing elementary schools to grades four through eight and turning middle schools into senior high schools.

Miller said the privatization plan, if approved by the Board of Education, would supplement the district’s ongoing school construction.

“This is not a substitute for what we are not doing,” he said. “It is just an additional approach. If it works, we’ll do more of them.”

Miller said a committee was formed Friday to prepare documents defining the legal and financial relationships and setting down rules for community involvement.

Attorney O’Malley Miller, chairman of the task force, said he would prepare documents covering both nonprofit and commercial developers.