Work Begins on Kennedy High Gym

More than seven years after the Northridge earthquake badly damaged the gymnasium at Kennedy High School, the campus will finally get a new $7-million gym paid for by the federal government, but it will not be ready for another 10 months.

Hundreds of students joined teachers, parents and district officials in a ground-breaking ceremony Wednesday on the dirt field that will eventually be occupied by the state-of-the-art gym.

“We’ve been waiting for this a long time,” said Assistant Principal Pete Fries. “It’s been five years in the planning.”

The Granada Hills campus was among the Los Angeles Unified School District’s hardest hit in the 1994 earthquake.

A three-story structure that housed administrative offices and classrooms was destroyed; it was replaced in 1998 with two separate buildings at a cost of $7 million to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That project took nearly two years to complete.

The long delay of the gym project is attributed to FEMA officials’ indecision on whether to build a new structure or repair the existing building, which is still being used by students.

“It took a lot of negotiating and we went back and forth a lot,” said Julie Korenstein, the LAUSD board member who helped secure money for the gym.

The existing gym, which will eventually be demolished, sits on unstable soil that constantly shifts and causes the building to drift south, Korenstein said. Despite structural damage, the building has been used through the years by physical education students and teachers who have nowhere else to conduct their activities.

“We’ve been using it, but it’s not safe,” said Principal Jim Gwin.

After the building is demolished, tennis and handball courts will occupy the space, he said.

Many students expressed skepticism Wednesday that a new gym would ever be built.

“It’s about time,” said sophomore Brenna Cooper, who uses the existing gym daily for physical education class. “Besides the fact that it’s not safe, that gym is old and ugly.”