K–12 | Daily Report

The state Senate will hold a hearing later this month probing the seismic safety of public schools as a result of a California Watch investigation.

State Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, chairwoman of the Select Committee on Earthquake and Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery, says the committee's April 27 hearing will explore background checks for school construction inspectors and the slow pace of fixing thousands of school buildings that may be seismically unsafe. Senators will also try to get a handle on why so many school buildings lack safety certifications.

Flickr photo by adrielhamptonState Sen. Ellen Corbett

"We're going to have the state architect's office there to answer some tough questions," Corbett said.

California Watch's "On Shaky Ground" series found that thousands of public school projects failed to meet the state's safety requirements. Hundreds of building inspectors missed safety defects or falsified reports – and were rewarded with more work; and the state has made it all but impossible for schools to get money to fix seismically unsafe buildings.

The failure of the state architect's office to enforce seismic safety regulations "definitely needs to be looked into. I just don't understand what’s happened there," Corbett said.

Corbett made her remarks yesterday after taping a KQED TV broadcast on the California Watch seismic safety investigation, set to air tonight at 7:30 p.m. 

She said that her committee will ask the Division of the State Architect about background checks for school inspectors. California Watch found that in one case regulators allowed an inspector who had been convicted of a felony in a construction safety case to monitor public school construction as recently as last year. Other inspectors were found to have falsified reports or had failed to identify major construction defects, records show.

"What (is the state architect's office) going to do about these inspectors?" Corbett said. "Isn't it just standard practice to take a look at their background before you hire them, if they’re in charge of safety for children?"

Senators will also call on the State Allocation Board, which controls bond funding for school districts, to loosen the strict standards that have made it almost impossible for schools with potentially dangerous buildings to qualify for seismic repair funds, Corbett said.

"We're going to do whatever we can to put pressure on getting the money that's just sitting available out to the schools so they can do their retrofit projects," she said. "I'm hopeful that we can get the State Allocation Board to act without legislation to get the money out. But if we need to do legislation, we will."

A day after the California Watch series concluded, a subcommittee of the State Allocation Board directed the Office of Public School Construction to find new ways to qualify more schools for repair money.

The upcoming April 27 hearing also will explore the seismic safety of hospitals, roads and bridges in California.

Corbett said she believes the confluence of the devastating Japan earthquake, coupled with California Watch reports, will prompt action.

"I think it will have a huge impact," she said.