Fund Allocation Pleases L.A. Schools

The Los Angeles school construction program got a boost Wednesday when the state agency that distributes funds set aside $450 million for California’s most overcrowded school districts.

The money, about a third of the remaining construction funds from the 1998 state school bond, will not be available until June 2002, about the time that L.A. Unified officials expect to submit applications for several high school projects.

The decision does not guarantee a share of that money to any particular district. Rather, it is intended to ensure that all the bond money isn’t spent before urban districts like Los Angeles can submit applications.

In the meantime, the State Allocation Board will develop a new priority system to distribute the money that should make it easier for the neediest districts to qualify for the $1.3 billion that remains.

Los Angeles school officials, who had pleaded for even more time, nonetheless praised the unanimous vote of the State Allocation Board.

“It was clearly a good faith expression,” said Fabian Nunez, the district’s director of legislative affairs.

The board acted in response to a ruling by a Los Angeles judge who concluded last month that the existing system penalizes urban school districts.

The board now hands out money to projects in the order that applications are received. Urban districts often cannot move as fast as suburban districts because land is scarce and time-consuming environmental problems are more likely to occur.

Several Los Angeles civil rights attorneys have challenged the state’s system of allocating school bond money.

Judge David P. Yaffe, who is hearing the case, ordered the state to devise a system that would give greater weight to districts with the greatest need. Yaffe said he will rule next month on whether the new policy solves the problem.

But state officials said it will take two months to work out the details of a new system that must weigh the competing interests of the state’s nearly 1,000 districts that differ widely in size, density and need.

During a nearly three-hour hearing Wednesday, numerous officials from small and medium-sized districts argued that the changes will eliminate their chances to qualify for more money. That is because applications over the next two years will greatly exceed the money available.

They also complained that the decision is unfair to districts that already have incurred planning and architectural costs for applications that may now be bumped to the end of the line.

State officials pledged to ensure that medium and small districts would not be neglected, but conceded that the task will be difficult.

“I don’t know how we are going to do this,” said Bruce Hancock, the board’s assistant executive officer.

Even with a more favorable policy, the state bond money is at best only a partial solution to L.A. Unified’s severe classroom shortage.

District officials estimate that at least 65,000 seats will have to be added to keep up with enrollment growth. Even with the new seats, every high school in the district will have to convert to multitrack, year-round schedules by 2006.

Kevin Reed, a lawyer representing the district, asked the State Allocation Board to delay distributing the $450 million until October 2002. By then, he said, the district would be ready to submit applications totaling about $400 million. Those would include some of the most urgently needed projects, including the new South Gate high school, conversion of district headquarters into a high school, and a replacement for the abandoned Belmont Learning Complex.

But the board instead chose the June 2002 deadline.