L.A. Schools Adopt New Guidelines for Repairs

The Los Angeles Unified School District, which has closed numerous schools and classrooms as the result of asbestos discoveries in the last five months, has adopted new safety guidelines for school repairs and maintenance.

The reforms were implemented in the wake of the five-day closure of Chatsworth High School earlier this month, after district inspectors discovered asbestos had been released by work crews drilling holes in classroom walls for wiring.

Schools and classrooms across the city are being temporarily shut down seemingly every week as more undergo repairs and maintenance--and more asbestos and lead are discovered in aging buildings--because of Proposition BB, a state bond measure approved by voters in 1997 for school upgrades.

Two guidelines took effect immediately, said district spokeswoman Hilda Ramirez.

First, health and safety officials with the district have direct oversight of general contractors working on asbestos management and abatement projects.

Second, the district hired Robert Buxbaum as interim general manager of facilities to review school construction projects.

School officials blame general contractor Tadros Construction of Glendale for failing to follow recommended work practices for managing asbestos at Chatsworth High, which has 3,200 students.

“Our preliminary investigation, which is not yet complete, indicates that they did know asbestos was in those rooms,” said William Panos, director of the district’s environmental health and safety branch.

But some maintain that the district is ultimately responsible for the asbestos problems because it owns the property.

“Somebody dropped the ball in the district,” said Patrick Michaels, a registered environmental assessor who heads Asbestos Analysis Laboratories in Studio City and is not associated with the school district. “You can’t delegate responsibility to the contractor to make sure asbestos contamination doesn’t take place. The district has to check up on their work.”

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Turner Construction Co., which is a Northridge bond management firm, and environmental consultants hired by the district gave Tadros officials a room-by-room survey, showing where the hazardous fibers were located, before construction crews began work in May, Panos said.

“The environmental consultants did their job; they informed the general contractor,” Panos said. “The general contractor is responsible for doing the job properly, and the job is to ensure asbestos and lead are managed and cleaned up.”

Attempts to reach officials at Tadros Construction were unsuccessful. An unidentified man who answered the company’s phone last week said he had no information.

School officials allege that work crews knowingly bored holes through tape and mud containing asbestos while wiring 100 classrooms in 14 buildings for fire alarms, intercoms, burglar alarms and the Internet.

The largest holes were drilled in the administration building, computer laboratory and storerooms where control boxes for the electronic equipment were housed.

“At Chatsworth High, the ceiling tiles are glued onto the drywall and it is hard to tell where the drywall panels are taped together,” said Gary Pons, the district industrial hygienist who oversaw the cleanup. “Whenever they drilled, they could hit it.”

Pons said Tadros officials should have assumed asbestos would be present in every classroom and taken proper precautions.

“Workers should be following recommended work practices for dealing with asbestos,” Pons said. “It negates their exposure and anyone else who’s around.”

Still, inspectors say, the district should have drawn lessons from earlier incidents of contractors’ mishandling of asbestos at Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades and Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, after the Hector Mine earthquake north of Joshua Tree shook Los Angeles last October.

Parts of several other campuses, including Grant High School in Valley Glen, have also been shut down for asbestos removal.

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Asbestos is common in many older buildings, where the material was used as a fire retardant. The carcinogenic fiber is most dangerous when disturbed and released into the air. Airborne fibers can lodge in the lungs, increasing the likelihood of lung cancer.

Currently, 347 school construction projects are active across the city, including 100 in the San Fernando Valley, district officials said.

“We need to learn from the prior breakdowns,” said Angelo Bellomo, an independent environmental scientist and a member of the district’s environmental safety team. “If Chatsworth was a problem that was preventable, it indicates a need for further strengthening of oversight procedures.”

Times staff writer Hector Becerra contributed to this report.