Panel Backs Surprise Inspections of Schools

Over the fierce objections of Los Angeles school officials, a City Council committee Tuesday voted in favor of allowing city and county inspectors to swoop unannounced onto five school campuses to evaluate the health and safety of kitchens, bathrooms and classrooms.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo proposed the plan last month, saying he felt a moral obligation to do something to improve conditions after hearing complaints from parents about rats and falling ceiling tiles at some schools.

But L.A. Unified Supt. Roy Romer said the inspections were unnecessary, even disrespectful, and that a more appropriate use of the city attorney’s time might be in fighting violence on school campuses.

Romer, who said he learned of Delgadillo’s plan last month from a reporter, also warned city officials against using the volatile issue of dirty school bathrooms for political gain. He said elected officials might hurt the school district’s fragile reputation in the process.

“I am shocked that we are here talking about you policing our bathrooms,” he told the council’s Budget Committee. He added that he knew there was “a temptation” to “make a press event over a dirty bathroom.”

“I simply do not want people to make politics out of it,” he said.

During an unsuccessful run for City Council last summer, school board member Julie Korenstein was forced to address how toilet paper winds up in a wet, goopy mess on the floor of campus restrooms. Similarly, Caprice Young lost her school board seat after a campaign in which her opponent blamed her for the sorry state of the facilities on many campuses.

But city officials insisted that they are not trying to curry favor with parents by portraying themselves as the champions of sanitary sinks and toilets.

“I don’t think there is anyone on this committee looking for a bathroom news conference,” Councilman Bernard C. Parks told Romer.

Delgadillo’s office said the inspection program is designed to improve learning conditions for students. Officials will be looking for a range of substandard or unsafe conditions, from lead paint to improperly ventilated classrooms, a spokesman said.

Parents from Sheridan Street Elementary School in Boyle Heights applauded the plan, saying they had seen cockroaches and rats at their children’s schools, along with moldy drinking fountains and classrooms strewn with trash.

“I like my school and I like seeing it clean,” said Maria Ponce de Leon, whose children attend Sheridan. But often, she said, “my school is dirty.”

School officials admit that L.A. Unified’s thousands of buildings and bathrooms and hundreds of cafeterias are far from perfect. Last year, during the first systematic safety examination in decades, district inspectors found thousands of violations.

But officials also say they already have an aggressive inspection program, one that was recently praised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as “the most progressive in the nation” and “an excellent model for other school districts throughout the country.”

Delgadillo and several council members said they believe the district could benefit from independent, surprise inspections.

Under their plan, which must still be considered by another council committee and then voted on by the full council, a pilot program of five inspections could begin next year.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has also backed the plan, voting two weeks ago to provide county health inspectors for the pilot project. A representative from Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn’s office said he too supports the pilot project.

Only Councilwoman Cindy Misckowski disagreed, saying the plan would take inspectors away from pressing city needs, such as housing projects, and would pit the district against the city in an unnecessary fight.

She also said that officials should look closely at their own facilities before dispatching inspectors to school campuses.

“I think we are holding an outside agency to a standard we don’t hold ourselves to,” she said.

School board member Marlene Canter agreed. “Park bathrooms are disgustingly filthy,” she said.