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A decision to lay off Pomona Unified's entire facilities department has raised questions about the district's efforts to fix school buildings deemed potentially unsafe in an earthquake.
The school board voted to wipe out the district's construction oversight jobs during a January meeting.
A month prior, facilities director Scott Stark told California Watch that he would order a detailed examination of one school, Philadelphia Elementary, to address possible seismic safety weaknesses at buildings on campus.
But weeks later Stark and his staff were let go and replaced by purchasing director Nathaniel Holt. The detailed review for Philadelphia has been put on hold.
Holt said Philadelphia is still important, but the district wanted to look at other campuses. Philadelphia, which is near the Chino-Central Avenue fault, was built in the late 1950s. Since 2002, the school has had four buildings on a state list, deemed potentially hazardous in an earthquake.
Instead, Pomona commissioned HMC Architects to study whether seismic repair work is needed at 43 schools. The work currently focuses on six schools, two of which have no buildings on the state's list of potentially hazardous structures and have not been deemed unsafe.
Philadelphia is not among the six schools being reviewed now by the architectual firm. Holt said Philadelphia will get looked at, in about two months.
"We know Philadelphia needs to be addressed, but we're saying these schools also need to be addressed," Holt said. "Right now, we're taking our time with a phased-in approach, so we can bring back 100 percent accurate information to the board."
Pomona Unified is located 30 miles east of Los Angeles. The district serves approximately 29,000 students. Hispanics make up 82.3 percent of the student population, according to 2009-2010 Department of Education data.
Pomona spokesperson Tim McGillivray said the layoffs stem from the school board's desire to save money during a harsh budget time. He said board members believed the facilities staff was "duplicating" the efforts of a private construction management firm.
Stark would not comment for this article. But former facilities assistant director Ava Hill said the facilities staff was needed to monitor the construction management firm and other contractors to ensure the taxpayers weren't fleeced.
"Consultants cannot dictate what needs to be done. You need someone in between," Hill said. "Just overseeing the architect and the construction manager is an eight hour a day responsibility."
Hill said the facilities staff could have been legally paid from $235 million in unspent bond money, while the construction work continued. She questioned whether Holt can watchdog the work of architects, inspectors and builders on an everyday basis.
"How can one person oversee everything and know what's happening?" Hill said. "The person running the program has never overseen a construction project in his life. He's never read a blueprint in his life. He's never read a soil report in his life. That's scary."
In 2008, Pomona contracted with HMC Architects to do a basic seismic review of its schools. The report, obtained by California Watch, excluded Philadelphia because the school didn't appear to meet the strict eligibility requirements for state seismic repair funds.
The work by HMC Architect involved web searches to compare eight school buildings against ground-shaking figures on a public website. The firm did not perform field work to conduct a in-depth analysis of the buildings. Such work is recommended to assess whether structures are safe.
After talking with California Watch, Stark said he would order a thorough assessment of Philadelphia and possibly hire a firm to study the school's proximity to earthquake faults. He said the evaluation would be completed this spring.
But when Holt replaced Stark in January, he said he had no evidence a study was ever done. Upon his and Superintendent Richard Martinez's recommendations, the school board awarded HMC Architects $11,500 to do the same type of review previously done by Stark.
This time, the architectual firm will research 43 schools – including 21 not on the state's list of buildings deemed potentially hazardous.
"I don't know what Scott Stark did or didn't do. I can't get into what records he had or didn't have. I don't get involved in personnel matters," Holt said. "I can say that the board as an entity wasn't aware of any seismic concerns."
Hill accused the current district leaders of wasting money and time.
"It's spring now and nothing has been done," Hill said. "They don't know what they're doing over there." pomonaseismicstudy
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