California Watch - K–12

New state architect to discuss seismic reforms

Corey G. Johnson — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Corey G. Johnson

Department of General ServicesState Architect Chester Widom

Newly appointed State Architect Chester Widom is slated to discuss today what steps seismic regulators are taking to address problems with their enforcement of earthquake safety requirements for public schools.

Widom will brief the state Seismic Safety Commission in Sacramento about a scathing California State Auditor report that concluded that the Division of the State Architect's oversight of school construction projects was “neither effective nor comprehensive.”

Eric Lamoureux, spokesman for the Department of General Services, the parent body of the state architect's office, said Widom will provide a copy of the report to commissioners and briefly answer questions.

The Seismic Safety Commission is made up of commissioners chosen for their expertise and experience. The group includes the state architect, a geologist, a fire protection specialist and a local building official. Established in 1975, after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, the commission investigates earthquakes, researches earthquake-related issues and recommends threat reduction policies and programs to the governor and Legislature.

Widom was tapped to lead the office by Gov. Jerry Brown in December and began working Jan. 1. Lamoureux said investigating issues raised in the audit and helping the office respond have been Widom's top priority since he began.

The session with the Seismic Safety Commission is likely the first of several public meetings where Widom will discuss the actions of engineers, supervisors and managers at the state architect's office.

Additional questions loom in the face of new revelations that state regulators routinely destroyed key documents that might have shed light on their lax enforcement of earthquake safety standards – despite a binding agreement it has with the State Archives to preserve public records.

Senate Majority Leader Ellen M. Corbett, D-San Leandro, is planning a hearing of the Select Committee on Earthquake and Disaster Preparedness to learn more about problems at the regulatory agency.

Corbett and other legislators called for the audit of the state architect's office in May after a California Watch investigation found that the agency routinely failed to enforce California’s landmark earthquake safety law for public schools – known as the Field Act – and allowed children and teachers to occupy buildings with structural flaws and potential safety hazards reported during construction. All public schools must be certified as meeting Field Act standards, and school board members, builders, architects and inspectors can be charged with a felony for failing to follow the act's provisions.

More than 16,000 school projects currently lack Field Act certification, and at least 59,000 more have yet to be fully reviewed by the state architect’s office to identify their Field Act status.

State auditors found that the state architect's office rarely used the enforcement tools it possesses, didn’t adequately document the safety issues it identified and didn't prioritize projects with safety concerns. The report also noted breakdowns in the state's oversight of inspectors.

On Shaky Ground: A look at seismic safety in California schools

Thousands of students attending schools with unresolved safety issues

Rural schools struggle to keep buses running

Joanna Lin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:05:03 +0000

Joanna Lin

Joanna Lin/California WatchBus driver Petra Schultz drives about 35 Bonny Doon Elementary School students in Santa Cruz County an hour to and from school every day.

There are no sidewalks, bike lanes or public transportation in Forks of Salmon, a tiny, forest-shrouded community deep in the mountains of Siskiyou County. For seven of the 10 students at Forks of Salmon Elementary School, getting to class means taking a 45-minute school bus ride on 18 miles of a narrow, two-lane road that twists and turns with the Salmon River.

Until this month, most of the $32,000 the school spends each year to bus students was covered by the state. But now, Forks of Salmon and other rural school districts are grappling with how to keep their buses running. Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed eliminating school transportation funding [PDF] next year, just weeks after announcing trigger cuts that wiped out $248 million for buses this year.

California does not require school districts to provide home-to-school transportation, except for certain special education students and those who are severely disabled or orthopedically impaired; less than 16 percent of students statewide ride school buses. But ridership is significantly higher in many rural areas, where sparsely populated, sprawling communities necessitate bus service, officials say.

"If we don't have transportation, we don't have school," said Tina Bennett, Forks of Salmon's superintendent, who also serves as its principal, first-through-third-grade teacher and bus driver.

The nearest gas station to Forks of Salmon charges $4.95 a gallon, and the roads, prone to rockslides and slick with ice in the winter, often are dangerous to drive. Not all families can afford or feel comfortable driving under those conditions, Bennett said.

School districts in the state spent more than $1.2 billion to transport students in 2009-10, the most recent year for which data was available. State funds covered just 38 percent of those costs. With last month's trigger cut, districts lost about 50 percent of the state funds they would have received this year.

For the Southern Humboldt Unified School District, which on average buses 650 of its 780 students every day, the trigger cut means its transportation coffers are empty.

"We'll be running out of money in 45 days," Superintendent Jim Stewart said Thursday. A day earlier, the district sent layoff notices to all 14 of its transportation employees, including 11 bus drivers.

Many districts planned for the trigger cut and have found ways to absorb it in the short run. Cox Bar School in Trinity County is tapping its general fund reserves to continue bus service this year for its 14 students. Forks of Salmon plans to retire its school bus and instead use a more economical nine-person van it has been loaning to another district.

But after the school year ends, districts say they'll have little or nothing to cushion transportation cuts – a reduction that state Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said is "ongoing in nature."

Transportation expenses are substantial for many rural districts. Most have relied heavily on state funding, which makes payments based on the cost per mile traveled. As a result, rural districts are hit disproportionately by transportation cuts, said David Walrath, legislative advocate for the Small School Districts' Association.

In this year's trigger cut, schools that provide transportation lost $248 million in addition to the $79.6 million revenue limit reduction to all schools. While revenue was reduced by about $13.30 per student, the transportation cut varied widely: For example, the San Francisco Unified School District lost $22.98 per student, whereas the Death Valley Unified School District lost $1,734.52, according to an analysis [PDF] by the California School Boards Association.

Joanna Lin/California WatchSeven of the 10 students at Forks of Salmon Elementary School ride the school bus 18 miles each way, which takes 45 minutes.

"It just doesn't seem equitable," said Stephanie Siddens, superintendent and principal of Bonny Doon Elementary School in Santa Cruz County, which used to receive about 72 percent of its transportation funds from the state. "Just because we provide transportation and we need it, we get cut more."

About 35 of the 129 students at Bonny Doon ride the bus on an average day, but as many as 71 take the bus at some time during the year. It takes more than an hour for the bus to travel its bumpy 25-mile route to school, which sits in a grove of redwood trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

For Trinity Kite, a fourth-grader at the school, the walk from her house to the bus stop alone is 1.5 miles. Once on board, Trinity said, "sometimes I get bus-sick because the roads are so winding."

"It's different from being in town, where you can walk to school," Siddens said of the community. "Kids here cannot walk to school."

Walrath, of the school districts association, is working with other education groups to lobby lawmakers to reverse the transportation trigger cut, or at the very least make the cut an across-the-board revenue reduction for all schools. He said such changes could be made within a few weeks "if we can generate enough will."

"What if the director of the Department of Finance underestimated and was too conservative on revenues? We could end up in the May (budget) revision having made major problems for parents and kids, particularly from low-income families and special education, and discover it wasn't necessary," Walrath said.

In the meantime, districts are looking for anywhere they can cut before stopping bus service.

Cox Bar School might have to dip into a deferred maintenance fund for potholes and cracks that it's been saving for five years, said Cherie Donahue, the school's superintendent and principal. Bonny Doon, which recently increased the price of its annual bus pass to $200, will consider cutting staff hours, Siddens said.

At Southern Humboldt Unified, Stewart hopes the district can siphon enough money from the classroom to provide some bus service, but it won't be "anything near" the 11 routes it offers now, he said. It also will consider charging students who are not low-income to ride the bus and ask families to carpool.

"There's really not many viable alternatives than, say, driving your kids to school," Stewart said. "When you talk about driving an hour to bring your kid to school and then you've got to drive an hour home, that's two hours, and you've got to repeat that in the afternoon. … We're talking a huge expense."

Stewart predicts that without bus service, attendance will fall, hurting funding even more.

"It's kind of a snowball," he said. "We can't get them here because we have no money, they can't get here, we have less money, and on and on."

State seismic regulators destroyed key records

Corey G. Johnson — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:05:03 +0000

Corey G. Johnson

Yuli Weeks/California WatchThe Division of the State Architect has erased the electronic records of former high-level officials, including former State Architect David Thorman.

The office that regulates California school construction routinely destroyed key documents that might have shed light on its lax enforcement of earthquake safety standards – despite a binding agreement it has with the State Archives to preserve public records.

For the past five years, the Division of the State Architect has erased the entire computer hard drives and copies of records saved on computer servers within a month of an employee's departure. Those records included all e-mail correspondence, directives, meeting notes and minutes, policy documents, and appointment calendars.

Such records help explain how enforcement decisions were developed and carried out. The retention agreement between the two offices shows that state regulators were not allowed to destroy correspondence and meeting minutes from its top managers without clearance from the State Archives. The records should have been saved for at least four years and then transferred to the State Archives, according to the retention documents.

Nicole Winger, spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office, said the archives office had not received any indication from the state architect's office that it wanted to destroy records.

The destroyed documents take on greater significance now that the state architect's office has come under scrutiny for its lax enforcement and questionable application of seismic safety standards. In reporting about the state's system of oversight, California Watch was able to obtain some of these documents through other sources – before records were destroyed. But there is no way to know how many records have been forever lost.

Eric Lamoureux, spokesman for the Department of General Services, which oversees the state architect's office, said the office views all e-mails not saved in individual school project files or any shared internal databases as "informal communications" that can be destroyed. Lamoureux said the department didn't notify the State Archives because there isn't a requirement to do so for "transitory" records.

High-level policymakers and executives whose e-mails, memos, appointment calendars and other electronic records were destroyed include former State Architect David Thorman, former top administrator Kathy Hicks, former chief structural engineer Dennis Bellet, former Oakland Regional Manager Nat Chauhan and former Los Angeles Regional Manager Shaf Ullah.

Thorman resigned in August 2010. Hicks transferred to the Department of General Services' Procurement Division in November 2010. Bellet and Chauhan left in December 2010, and Ullah on Sept. 19 of this year.

The departures occurred during a California Watch investigation that found the Division of the State Architect routinely failed to enforce the Field Act, California’s landmark earthquake safety law and building code for public schools. The investigation found at least 20,000 projects that did not comply with Field Act requirements. The shortcomings ranged from missing fire alarms to major structural issues in new classrooms.

After California Watch requested Hicks' and Ullah's e-mails, state architect officials disclosed that they had deleted the records.

The agency generally erases all records stored on an individual's computer within days of departure, so the computer can be used by another employee, Lamoureux said. He said the agency has no policy mandating the preservation of records on computer hard drives.

Since 2006, technical staff have deleted all former employees' backup e-mails and electronic documents stored on the department's computer servers exactly one month after an employee left the job, according to an administrative order from Ron Joseph, who was then director of the Department of General Services. Joseph's order was imposed on all offices inside the department. It says the goal was to save money:

This change to the retention schedule results in significant savings to the department by reducing costs for tape, labor and off-site storage.

... DGS employees shall delete unnecessary electronic documents and e-mail messages on a monthly basis, at a minimum. Weekly is recommended, making the task simpler and faster.

David Uhlich, an archivist at UC Berkeley, said it is common for agencies to balance records retention requirements with the storage space limitations of their computer servers. But he said the Department of General Services' order seemed "a little extreme."

"By my understanding, policies such as these are usually written to save server space, but this one doesn't seem to provide enough safeguards for protecting the actual records," Uhlich said.

The high-level state architect employees – Thorman, Hicks, Bellet, Chauhan and Ullah – all played key roles in determining how regulators would enforce state seismic standards. They also shaped and directed a review of the 1,100 projects that had been flagged for safety concerns, after receiving questions from California Watch.

The destroyed e-mails could have offered an important window into the workings of the office during an intense period of scrutiny. Other internal e-mails obtained by California Watch from the records of current employees show a rising level of concern about the agency's failure to certify schools.

In one October 2010 e-mail to managers, Hicks called the proposed review an "all hands on deck" order.

"The backlog of projects closed without certification is going to be DSA's next publicly criticized failure –even if we don't truly own the problem," Hicks wrote. "We have to get ahead of the problem and to be able to show that we are making progress."

By February 2011, however, another top manager expressed concerns about the agency's efforts after finding more than 400 separate building projects in the Los Angeles region had been reclassified from possible structural defects to missing paperwork “for no apparent or recorded reason.”

"We are not questioning those changes," wrote Robert Tetz, then leader of the task force conducting the review. "Is that appropriate?"

Earlier this month, the state auditor concluded that the state architect's office failed to ensure that the buildings occupied by children and teachers are safe. Auditors now are conducting a second review of the regulatory agency, this time examining the state architect's office's building plan reviews and its use of consultants to supplement the office's efforts.

At the request of California Watch, the state architect's office has agreed to preserve the backup files for Ullah's and Hick's electronic records currently saved on agency servers.

However, all records from Thorman's, Bellet's and Chauhan's primary and backup accounts are gone. Only a scant amount of electronic correspondence and memos from the former executives still exist in the e-mail and computer files of a few current employees.

Lamoureux said technical staff will continue to educate new employees about the need to move their work-related documents to agency servers.

Kindergarten math skills key to later success, researchers say

Eleanor Yang Su — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:05:03 +0000

Eleanor Yang Su

woodleywonderworks/Flickr

It’s one of the biggest debates going on among early childhood development experts: Is it more important for kindergartners to focus on academics and learn their ABC’s and numbers? Or spend more time on social and emotional issues, like how to play nice and pay attention?

Recent research by a UC Irvine education professor shows that math skills among kindergartners turn out to be a key predictor for future academic success.

Professor Greg Duncan and his colleagues analyzed studies conducted with close to 20,000 kindergartners, assessing their knowledge of math, literacy and other skills, including their ability to stay on task and make friends. The studies followed the kindergartners for several years through elementary school, testing them in reading and math.

Even after accounting for differences in IQ and family income, Duncan found that those who learned the most math in kindergarten tended to have the highest math and reading scores years later.

“It was very surprising,” said Duncan, whose research appears in a new book. “Everyone says reading is most important, and if a child can read by third grade, the chance of dropping out of school is so much lower. But it was math that stood out as serving the kids best in promoting later achievement. Reading was next most important, and then attention skills were third most important.”

Social skills, including the ability to self-regulate and control one’s temper, also are important. But Duncan found that they weren’t as closely linked to future academic success as math and reading. Students who exhibit antisocial behavior through elementary and middle school tend to drop out of high school at higher rates, Duncan found, but again, those with persistently low math scores also dropped out at higher rates.

He said his research shows that kindergarten teachers ought to devote more time to math instruction. It can be simple things, he said, like learning shapes and numbers and the concept of smaller and bigger numbers along a number line.

“If you show kindergartners a line with zero at one end and 10 at the other, and ask them, ‘Where’s the 8?’, they tend to put the 8 in the middle,” Duncan said. “They don’t know that there’s this cardinal pattern. And unless you show them a number line and they understand where numbers are in relation to each other, it’ll be hard for them to get addition and subtraction later on.”

But some question whether children are ready for certain math concepts in kindergarten. As kindergarten has grown more academically oriented in the past decade, there’s been an increasing emphasis on teaching more advanced material to younger children.

“Kindergartners are learning what used to be learned in the first grade,” said Jill Cannon, a researcher who has written about kindergarten for the Public Policy Institute of California. “Some people even argue that preschool is becoming too academic.”

Some childhood advocates warn that instructional time is edging out playtime and putting unnecessary pressure and stress on kids. In its report [PDF] “Crisis in the Kindergarten,” the nonprofit Alliance for Childhood argues that children were being taught to master material beyond their developmental level while being deprived of playtime to help them cope with the stress.

“Some kindergartners are being taught to count to 100 by 1’s and by 10’s,” said Edward Miller, a senior researcher for the Alliance for Childhood. “But it’s very clear from the research that 5-year-olds are not capable of really understanding that kind of large number. So they’re being taught to repeat something that’s meaningless. And if they don’t, they get labeled as failures.”

Duncan said kindergartners are ready for a variety of math concepts that can be taught in fun and playful ways.

“I’m not implying that there needs to be flashcards and drill-and-kill exercises,” Duncan said. He suggests teachers use math lessons that let kids explore and manipulate numbers. For parents, he recommends they point out shapes to their kids and play cards and board games to help them get comfortable with counting.

State identifies school projects with safety concerns

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:07:19 +0000

As of late 2010, the state had issued nearly 1,100 notices to school districts with construction projects that had known safety concerns. We've done our best to identify the projects below, but the state's data is messy.

Thousands of students attending schools with unresolved safety issues

Kendall Taggart — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:04:14 +0000

Kendall Taggart and Corey G. Johnson

Intern Sam Pearson contributed to this report. This story was edited by Denise Zapata and Mark Katches. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick.

Mark Avery/California WatchHelen Bernstein High School in Los Angeles is on the state’s list of school projects with serious safety problems.

Helen Bernstein was supposed to be a new kind of high school – a project that would serve 2,100 students on a footprint of only 12.4 acres, with views of the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory.

Work on the campus started in 2004 – part of a $20 billion building program launched by the Los Angeles Unified School District. But construction was troubled almost from the start.

Four years in, the state supervising structural engineer learned that more than 1,320 changes were made without the state’s approval. Engineers say some of those changes could weaken structures and put students at risk in an earthquake.

In several cases, subcontractors for the general contractor, Tutor-Saliba Corp., had built over construction flaws – despite objections from school inspectors, records obtained by California Watch and interviews show. Before the work was hidden by plaster and cement, inspectors photographed missing anchors, damaged bolts, lopsided walls and crooked floor frames.

Yet neither the Los Angeles Unified School District nor the state stepped in to stop Tutor-Saliba or its subcontractors. Despite receiving thousands of non-compliance notices, including a list of uncorrected structural problems, school officials moved children, teachers and staff into the buildings three years ago.

The conditions at Helen Bernstein High School illustrate a festering problem in scores of California schools. Bernstein and 85 other projects – including seven projects at one Santa Barbara County school district – were flagged by state structural engineers for serious safety issues.

And yet, local school districts have allowed more than 42,000 students to attend these schools without resolving many of the safety concerns, records and interviews show.

Tim Buresh, former chief operating officer for the school district and a former vice president of Tutor Perini Corp., Tutor-Saliba’s parent company, said the district and contractor agreed to keep the project moving despite the notices.

“If you stopped the work every time you found a problem, when it was taking many months for (the architect) to resolve any one issue, you would simply not be able to get it done,” said Buresh, who was interviewed this month about his role. He went to work on California’s high-speed rail initiative in June.

Construction defects include ceiling braces inside the library and student dining area that a state field engineer said could be too weak to withstand shaking in an earthquake and large lighting fixtures in the practice gym that the inspector was unable to thoroughly review. These problems still have not been fixed.

“These are serious issues,” said Dan Shapiro, a structural engineer and former Seismic Safety Commission member who reviewed building plans, construction photos and inspection reports regarding Helen Bernstein for California Watch.

Kelly Schmader, Los Angeles Unified’s chief facilities executive, acknowledged mistakes were made.

“This definitely is not one of our proudest moments at Helen Bernstein High School,” he said. “This project has been a struggle for us.”

In April, California Watch identified thousands of schools across the state that had failed to meet the state’s rigorous seismic safety standards. A report by the state auditor released this month confirmed those findings, noting that weak oversight has potentially put children at risk. This group of 86 projects has been designated by the state as posing the greatest potential risk to students and teachers.

At these sites, which cost more than $300 million to build, regulators from the Division of the State Architect and local school district administrators were told of illegal work or dangerous shortcuts in time to intervene, records and interviews show. Instead, supervisors ignored the warnings and charged ahead.

State regulators have pledged to keep problems at these 86 projects on the radar until they are resolved, although they insist that none of the projects pose an imminent threat to children.

The Division of the State Architect, which oversees public school construction, is now supposed to send periodic notifications to these districts about any remaining building issues, according to Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the Department of General Services, the parent agency of the state architect's office. In most cases, repeated notifications had not been sent to school districts in the past.

More than a third of the 86 projects are in seismically active Los Angeles County, where problems include walls that were not properly connected to the foundations. Nearly half of the building projects have remained on the state’s uncertified school list for 10 years or longer, according to state records.

In one case, the state architect’s office sent a letter to the Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District in Stanislaus County saying the concrete columns supporting the press box at Orestimba High School appeared to be overstressed. The letter, sent in 1994, requested documentation showing the press box was safe. The state architect’s office has no record that the district ever responded.

After the California Watch series in April, the state architect’s office sent another letter reminding Newman-Crows Landing of its safety issues. As a result, the district’s superintendent, Ed Felt, closed the press box until the district could verify that it meets safety standards.

Inexperienced contractor accused of fraud

In early 2000, the Santa Maria-Bonita School District in Santa Barbara County embarked on a $120 million construction program. School officials planned about 20 projects, including more than 50 new buildings, to relieve their crowded campuses. The area is seismically active, with several faults nearby.

In contrast to a large district like Los Angeles Unified, Santa Maria-Bonita had not built a new school in more than a decade when it started its massive building program. The district tapped TurnKey Schools of America, a startup contractor with little experience building schools. The responsibility for day-to-day oversight of TurnKey’s work was delegated to two district employees who also had limited construction expertise.

A decade later, documents and grand jury testimony show how allegations of fraud, secrecy and a disregard for safety requirements landed the district at the top of the state’s list of most problematic projects.

The district now has seven schools the state has designated as among those with the most serious defects, more than any other district in California. State and district documents show school officials, including the current assistant superintendent for business services and current coordinator of maintenance and operations, knew about numerous structural safety problems, yet thousands of children have occupied the dangerous buildings since 2004.

In 2005, TurnKey was forced into bankruptcy after subcontractors complained about not getting paid.

Shortly afterward, the California attorney general’s office launched an investigation of TurnKey. In April 2008, a grand jury indicted three construction company executives and Cynthia Lynn Clark, the district’s former assistant superintendent of business services, who was in charge of the project, on 74 felony counts alleging they misappropriated $3.6 million in school construction money.

According to grand jury testimony, TurnKey executives diverted the district’s money to lease expensive cars, throw parties, buy artwork and pay themselves exorbitant cash bonuses. When the company began to run short of cash, it submitted false invoices to the district. Prosecutors have accused Clark of paying invoices she knew were fraudulent because she had plans to work for TurnKey after she left the district.

The trial for Clark and the three TurnKey executives is scheduled to start in January. The defendants have pleaded not guilty. Clark's attorney said she followed directives from her supervisor and the school board.

Construction issues escaped public scrutiny

The fraud allegations were reported by local media. But the extent of the construction shortcomings had not been reported until California Watch began examining them. When TurnKey went out of business, it left Santa Maria-Bonita with hundreds of construction problems.

Poorly welded steel and undersized reinforcements weakened every gymnasium roof, records show. Testing at those same gyms found shear walls unable to absorb and transfer earthquake forces because they were improperly nailed to studs. Anchor bolts that secure walls to the foundation were loose and difficult to fix because they were buried beneath the gymnasium, according to inspection reports.

John A. Martin & Associates, a structural engineering firm hired by the district to investigate problems, warned in 2009 that structural frames in every TurnKey building were too weak to resist an earthquake, a defect affecting buildings at more than a dozen schools. Those buildings included two-story classroom buildings at Arellanes Junior High, El Camino Junior High, Tommie Kunst Junior High and Fesler Junior High schools.

“We believe these conditions to be substandard, and may pose a potential life-safety risk to students and staff in or around these structures,” wrote Melissa Hazlett, a structural engineer with John A. Martin & Associates.

In the rush to complete construction, TurnKey executives ignored inspectors’ warnings about shoddy work. Jessica Needham, who was TurnKey’s architect and part owner of the building firm, told grand jurors that TurnKey employees faked her signature and submitted plans for state approval that she never saw.

Needham said she knew shoddy construction was rampant at the district, but company founder and CEO Harry Clark ordered her to ignore it. In one meeting, an angry Clark forbade Morley from documenting any problems, she told grand jurors.

“He didn’t want to hear about any more mistakes in the construction at all,” Needham testified. “Harry said that it was ‘taking too much money, too much time.’ ”

Inspector marked absent

TurnKey also took advantage of regulatory blind spots. The firm supplied pre-fabricated buildings to the school district. There are no state quality-control standards for plants that manufacture those buildings.

Fred Reyes, an inspector hired by the district to oversee work at the plant, was frequently absent, according to interviews and documents filed with the state.

A state regulator who went to the plant noticed workers installing older wiring in the buildings, according to his report. The regulator noted that 42 of 86 building sections were completed and Reyes was absent the entire time, the report says.

John Coyle, an inspector who worked at Arellanes Junior High, said he initially became suspicious of Reyes’ inspections after noticing a number of poor welds he thought should have been caught at the plant.

“I went out to the plant,” Coyle said. “Work was being done, but Reyes wasn’t there.”

After receiving complaints from another inspector, a state regulator rejected Reyes’ final reports attesting that all the work had been done correctly.

Reyes, in an interview with California Watch, said he could not recall his work at TurnKey. He said the district raised only one structural concern – a crucial connection at the gymnasium – which he claims was not his responsibility.

In 2006, the school district sued the inspection firm that employed Reyes, All American Inspection, after discovering numerous pieces of substandard steel welding and poorly built wood frames that Reyes had vouched for.

The firm settled the case by paying the district $325,000 without admitting wrongdoing. Reyes is still working as a school construction inspector in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The state architect’s office said it has not been able to determine whether Reyes has been disciplined. All American is also still an active inspection firm eligible to do business with school districts.

District officials don’t halt construction

At several key moments during construction, Santa Maria-Bonita district officials were warned that its building contractor was making mistakes but did not require fixes.

Cynthia Clark, the former assistant superintendent who was later indicted, and Ed Fassiotto, coordinator of maintenance and operations, ignored roughly 200 inspector citations. Inspectors flagged dangerous contractor shortcuts, improper structural changes, poor steel welding and unapproved foundations, according to state construction files and interviews with project inspectors.

Roger Smith, an inspector who worked at multiple projects for Santa Maria-Bonita, said he urged Clark to shut down construction.

“I begged her not to let them pour the first set of foundations at Liberty (Elementary) … because there were no approved drawings,” Smith said in an interview. “She goes, ‘I want these projects finished. I want the kids in the schools.’ ”

Through her attorney, Clark said she does not recall the conversation with Smith. She said she was diligent in getting deviations resolved and believed Needham was taking steps to correct them.

During an interview in 2005 conducted as part of an internal district investigation, Clark admitted that she knew many of the project's problems stemmed from “poor to non-existent drawings.” Clark said she knew that TurnKey’s construction managers were “winging it and directing changes without … approval” and that the company was substituting “cheaper material” than what was called for in the contract.

The district investigation report stated: “Despite all of TurnKey’s problems, however, she never demanded corrective action or took independent action to monitor or audit TurnKey: nor did she tell anyone who might have directed such actions.”

Fassiotto, who still works as the district’s maintenance and operations coordinator, told the grand jury that TurnKey often delivered buildings from its plant that required repairs. He said he also signed documents that allowed TurnKey to get paid for work it had not done – in some cases, over the protest of inspectors.

“I knew it was not right, and – but the overriding issue at the time was to get the schools open,” Fassiotto testified. “And I really can’t say that I was going to lie down in front of a truck to stop this, but I do know that it was wrong.”

State refuses to step in

Frustrated over the inability to get district officials to stop TurnKey’s work, project inspectors met with Shaf Ullah, the Division of the State Architect’s former regional director in Los Angeles, urging him to stop TurnKey’s construction.

Ullah said no. Although the state architect’s office was given the authority to halt faulty work several years earlier, an internal employee survey conducted in 2006 noted unspecified “political pressure” for the lack of stop work orders.

“At that point, all of us realized we were out in the cold,” Smith said, “that nobody was going to help us.”

The audit of the state architect’s office released this month found that regulators were failing to use their stop work authority even when they knew about unsafe conditions.

The district canceled a face-to-face interview with California Watch and did not respond to multiple attempts to reschedule. However, in an e-mailed statement, Superintendent Phil Alvarado maintains that district buildings are safe. He also provided a letter from John A. Martin saying poorly constructed frames in some buildings needed repair but do not pose “an immediate life safety risk.”

Shapiro, the engineer who reviewed documents for California Watch, said Martin’s conclusions seemed like a gamble.

“When they say ‘immediate risk,’ I never know exactly what they mean,” Shapiro said. “I guess the next earthquake might be smaller and nothing terrible would happen. But if it isn’t up to code and would perhaps collapse in a large earthquake, it’s not safe.”

Bill Korn, a state-certified inspector who worked on the Santa Maria-Bonita projects, doubts the district will ever be able to certify the school buildings are safe because many of the building defects are now encased in concrete.

“We’ve got to tear these buildings down and start over or pretty damn close to it,” he said. “To find some of these deviation notices we’re talking about, you’re talking about tearing the building apart.”

Parents left in the dark

Santa Maria-Bonita’s construction problems were kept quiet. District officials did not tell parents or discuss problems at public meetings.

David Riloquio, a former district school board member who was elected shortly after TurnKey went bankrupt, said he could not recall ever being told about structural problems with the buildings. Riloquio was president of the board from 2008 to 2009, when John A. Martin & Associates, the structural engineering firm, identified several structural concerns at TurnKey buildings.

Several other board members did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition to its position as lead contractor on Santa Maria-Bonita’s $120 million construction program, TurnKey, which was founded in 1998, received almost $93 million in contracts for school construction projects at more than a dozen school districts through 2005.

The district has not addressed at least four major structural problems uncovered by John A. Martin & Associates. These include the structural frames at every TurnKey building, the anchors at the gymnasiums, the connections between the first and second floor of the two-story classrooms and the elevators. The district contends it has repaired unsafe stairwells and the walls and roof at the gymnasiums. The state architect’s office approved the gym remedial plan for one site, but rejected the proposed fixes at four others.

“Who loses here?” said Smith, the project inspector. “The people who lose are between 6 and 12 years old.”

Chaotic oversight, unapproved changes

About 160 miles south of Santa Maria, Los Angeles Unified School District touted Helen Bernstein High School as a new landmark for Hollywood. When it opened in 2008, it was one of 74 new schools completed as part of the district's multibillion-dollar construction program.

By the time it was built, the project was $60 million over budget and two years behind schedule. Days after the school opened, 18,500 construction tasks had not been completed, according to a final inspection report submitted to the state and the district.

The tasks ranged from minor items, such as exit signs that had not been installed, to serious structural issues, including ceilings above the library and student dining area that were not properly braced to withstand shaking in an earthquake.

In both the library and dining areas, places that are often teeming with schoolchildren, the contractor connected braces in the wrong spots, records show. That created potential structural weaknesses, according to the state field engineer.

At one point, the inspector’s log included 3,800 deviations from state building plans. Half of those deviations were structural. The district acknowledged it is still grappling with about 1,000 changes that have not been vetted by the state. In at least six cases, the deviations were buried behind plaster and concrete and would be difficult, if not impossible, to correct.

District oversight of the project was chaotic. Before buildings were occupied, five different project managers were brought in. Each one had to deal with hundreds of deviations that were not resolved by his predecessor.

The district relied on outside contractors to manage construction. Most had little experience with the unique requirements of California’s school building code, and some later sought jobs with the contractors they were expected to manage. There also was tremendous pressure to keep construction moving to avoid increased costs.

Inspectors say system broke down

Former inspectors and project managers said the district’s oversight system broke down. Walter Jones, who recently retired from Los Angeles Unified after working as a supervising inspector for more than two decades, said: “They saw any inspector writing up a deviation notice as getting in the way. It’s not asking too much to get the job that you’re paying for.”

State regulators also expressed concern about the contractor’s work. During construction, a state field engineer wrote that the contractor was closing up the structural framing with architectural finishes despite unresolved problems.

“If any accident occurs in the future (that happens in those areas which were not constructed per DSA approved documents), who will be liable for that?” James Lin, the field engineer, wrote.

Interviews and district documents reviewed by California Watch describe a battle between the general contractor, Tutor-Saliba, and district construction inspectors who were repeatedly documenting instances in which the firm and its subcontractors illegally built over unapproved work.

Steve Sharr, the district’s former regional director of new construction, wrote in a December 2005 survey of senior project executives: “We’ve lost sight of the strategic goals as a consequence of trying to put out fires on a day-to-day basis. … (The contractor) continues to be adversarial and lacks a QC (quality control) focus and implementation.”

Mark Avery/California WatchDuring construction of Helen Bernstein High School, inspectors flagged structural problems at the continuation school on campus.

The lead inspector, Mike Rosenberg, cited Tutor-Saliba and its subcontractor more than 15 times for building over work despite deficiencies.

Jack Frost, executive vice president at Tutor-Saliba, said in an interview that every deviation was resolved to Los Angeles Unified’s satisfaction or the company would not have been paid.

Curtis Olsen, a former Los Angeles Unified project manager who worked on the Helen Bernstein project, said the district paid Tutor-Saliba to fix mistakes the firm made to keep the project on schedule. Olsen said senior project managers Rick Hijazi and Sharr agreed Tutor was at fault but told him to sign the invoices anyway.

“I think there are a lot of areas that they (Tutor-Saliba) didn’t comply with the building code or the contract and it wasn’t their intent to comply,” he said.

Sharr acknowledged that the district paid Tutor-Saliba to fix mistakes the company may have caused. If the district had not done that, "we would still be arguing about it to this day," he said. "That was a conscious series of discussions at the highest management level about what it was going to take to get the school done.”

Mike Kerchner, a vice president for Tutor-Saliba, was constantly interfering with construction and trying to get additional funds for the company, Olsen said.

Kerchner did not respond to multiple requests for comment. When asked about the criticisms of Kerchner, former Tutor Perini executive Buresh attributed the “huge numbers of errors” on the project to the design professionals, saying their plans were unclear.

While the deviation notices began to number in the hundreds and construction fell behind schedule, Kerchner complained to Los Angeles Unified that the project inspector was causing delays.

“Contrary to our many discussions the LAUSD has not been able to demonstrate any reasonable control or influence with the IOR (inspector of record) on this project,” Kerchner wrote.

According to state law, the inspector of record is an independent agent of the Division of the State Architect and cannot be directed by a contractor or the district.

Inspectors contend that the district’s project managers pressured them to sign off on unsafe work.

“A lot of the people there have let code violations go in order to keep them (project management) happy and allowed contractors to close up work that’s a clear code violation,” said Jones, the former inspection supervisor. “They’ve been certified by people who didn’t want to make waves.”

Despite the construction problems, the school officials paid Tutor-Saliba $15 million in 2010 to settle the firm’s claim that the district had caused delays.

The district says it is confident the buildings are safe. However, the district did not provide requested documentation showing the remaining issues had been resolved.

Although Kelly Schmader, Los Angeles Unified’s chief facilities executive, conceded the district struggled with the project, he said in a letter to the school board and district Superintendent John Deasy, “The Helen Bernstein High School is a perfect example of the district's commitment to school building and student safety.”

Board members plead ignorance

The school board is ultimately responsible for unsafe conditions. At Los Angeles Unified, board members ignored warnings from the district’s inspection department about deficient work and ballooning costs, Jones said.

Two former board members – Julie Korenstein and David Tokofsky – said they were not made aware of construction problems at Helen Bernstein before buildings were occupied, despite letters from the inspection department that were copied to the entire board during the time they were members.

“I’m shocked,” Korenstein said. “The whole thing is really horrible.”

Tokofsky, who left the board in 2007, said he was used to hearing about projects with a list of 20 to 50 tasks to be completed. A list of 18,500 is unheard of, he said. “That seems galactic,” he said. “I mean that is massive.”

In an April 24, 2007, letter to Mónica García, the current Los Angeles Unified board president, and the rest of the board, Jones said the district’s project managers were routinely accepting low-quality work and overpaying the contractor. There is no record that the board responded.

García did not return a phone call and e-mail requesting comment.

“The schools are being built in a watered-down system that does not hold the safety of the kids as the most important thing,” said Jones, the former supervising inspector.

Correction: An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect date for when David Tokofsky left the Los Angeles Unified School Board. He served on the board through 2007.

Frequently asked questions

California Watch — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:03:16 +0000

My school is near a seismic hazard, is on the AB 300 list or has uncertified projects. Does this mean it won’t withstand an earthquake?
What are the different types of uncertified projects?
Your story says there are at least 20,000 uncertified projects. Are these all included in the interactive map?
The original AB 300 report says there are 9,659 buildings listed. Why are the numbers in your interactive database different?
Why is my school showing up in the wrong location? How do I get that fixed?
What is a landslide or landslide zone?
I know there are liquefaction and landslide zones in my area. Why aren’t they showing up on the map?

My school is near a seismic hazard, is on the AB 300 list or has uncertified projects. Does this mean it won’t withstand an earthquake?

Earthquake damage is hard to predict. Generally, proximity to a seismic hazard does not necessarily mean that a building won’t withstand an earthquake, but it does mean that the structure must be constructed to resist greater seismic forces to ensure safety.

The AB 300 list represents school buildings that were built when the laws didn’t require a stronger design. These buildings generally are more vulnerable because of their age, structural design and location relative to active earthquake faults. Of the 9,659 buildings on the AB 300 list, about 7,500 were deemed by the state as potentially hazardous and in need of a detailed structural evaluation. If your school has buildings on the list, we recommend you talk with your school district officials to learn more about whether an evaluation has been done.

A school that has projects lacking Field Act certification either has known, unresolved safety issues (Letter 4) or is missing important documents that verify the safety of the construction (Letter 3). The Field Act earthquake safety building requirements were developed to help ensure that K-12 schools stood the best chance of withstanding an earthquake.

An uncertified project could include seismic safety problems or issues with other building requirements, including fire and life safety and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. If you want more information about a school’s uncertified project, we recommend you contact the Division of the State Architect or the school district and request records detailing the reasons why the project was rejected for approval.

What are the different types of uncertified projects?

When a project nears completion, the state architect’s office is supposed to certify that the construction meets state safety guidelines. This certification comes in the form of a letter. Here are some common types of certification letters the office can issue:

Letter 4: Closeout Without Certification Due to Safety-Related Deficiencies. The state is supposed to issue these letters when a project has known, unresolved safety issues. The state had issued nearly 1,100 of these letters as of late 2010. But the state architect’s office began changing the status of hundreds of these building projects without visiting school sites.

Letter 3: Closeout Without Certification Due to Exceptions. If a project is missing documents that suggest safety problems, the state can issue one of these letters. California Watch found at least 20,000 schools that have been closed out without certification.

Letter 2: Certificate of Compliance Without Receipt of All Documents. This letter can be issued by the state, even if a project lacks some of the documentation typically required to close out a construction project.

Letter 1: Closeout with Certification. This letter is given to projects that meet state safety guidelines.

Your story says there are at least 20,000 uncertified projects. Are these all included in the interactive map?

Not at this time.

Our interactive includes only projects that were at one point certified Letter 4. The state is supposed to issue these letters when a project has known, unresolved safety issues in construction. During the course of our reporting, we came across projects that had been changed to other letters (1, 2 or 3). Despite these changes by the state architect’s office, some of these projects nevertheless appeared to have unresolved questions about construction defects. As a result, we included all projects that had ever been certified Letter 4, regardless of their current status.

Also, the data provided by the state architect’s office had major problems and inaccuracies. The interactive map includes only the 785 Letter 4 projects that California Watch could match to an existing school site. For the most complete information, download the raw spreadsheet and contact your school district. Here is information on how to follow up with your district.

Learn more about how California Watch developed the interactive map.

The original AB 300 report says there are 9,659 buildings listed. Why are the numbers in your interactive database different?

There are a few reasons.

First, our interactive database counts projects, not buildings, to be more consistent with the other data presented.

Second, the data provided by the state architect’s office had major problems and inaccuracies. The interactive map includes only the 2,829 AB 300 projects that California Watch could match to an existing school site. There are 1,466 projects we could not match. For the most complete information, download the raw spreadsheets and contact your school district. Here is information on how to follow up with your district.

After the AB 300 list was compiled in 2002, the Division of the State Architect began working to update the list in 2008. Some buildings were removed because there were duplicate entries, the school district could find no record of them, the buildings were never constructed, or the building had been demolished or sold. According to the state, this accounted for 717 buildings. California Watch did not include these entries in the database. Further, the process of finding reliable addresses for buildings on the AB 300 list was a massive undertaking. Even after calling 300 school districts, we could not identify all of the buildings listed.

Learn more about how California Watch developed the interactive map.

Why is my school showing up in the wrong location? How do I get that fixed?

Schools have been placed on the map using coordinates provided by the California Geological Survey. California Watch has adjusted the location of some schools that had obviously been misplaced, but you might still find some location errors. If you find that your school is showing up in the wrong location, please e-mail seismic@cironline.org with the current address, and we will do our best to fix it promptly.

What is a landslide or landslide zone?

A landslide is a movement of surface material down a slope, sometimes caused by an earthquake. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake generated thousands of landslides throughout the region.

Like an Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zone and a liquefaction zone, a landslide zone places restrictions on building projects in the area. A site-specific study must be completed before a building permit is approved within this zone.

I know there are liquefaction and landslide zones in my area. Why aren’t they showing up on the map?

Liquefaction zone data is available only for the Bay Area and parts of Southern California (including parts of Riverside, Orange, Ventura and Los Angeles counties).

Glossary of earthquake terms

California Watch — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:03:09 +0000

AB 300: The state Legislature approved AB 300 in 1999, requiring the Department of General Services to conduct a “collapse risk” inventory of the state’s K-12 school buildings. Although the report begins, “Public school buildings in California are the safest in the nation,” it ultimately concluded that 7,537 buildings, approximately 14 percent of the total square footage in the state’s public K-12 schools, were not expected to withstand future earthquakes and urgently needed further structural evaluation to gauge needed repairs.
Active fault: A fault where there is evidence of earth movement within the last 11,000 years.
Aftershocks: Smaller, weaker earthquakes that can follow major quakes as broken underground rocks settle.
Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act: After a devastating earthquake ripped through Los Angeles in 1971, the state Legislature passed the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act, which restricts construction on or near fault lines. High-occupancy buildings, such as schools, hospitals and commercial projects, built since 1972 must be set back 50 feet from an active fault. Since June 1998, sellers of real estate must disclose to prospective buyers whether the property is within such a zone. California Watch found that the state has been changing the maps – making several earthquake zones smaller.
Bedrock: Relatively hard, solid rock that commonly underlies softer rock, sediment or soil.
Blind thrust fault: A thrust fault that does not rupture all the way up to the surface, meaning there is no evidence of it on the ground. It is buried under the uppermost layers of rock in the earth’s crust.
Division of the State Architect: The state regulatory office responsible for overseeing the Field Act. The division also is referred to as the state architect’s office.
Epicenter: The point on the planet’s surface above the underground origin of an earthquake.
Fault (fault line): A crack or break in the earth’s crust where two tectonic plates meet.
Field Act: Within a month of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, the Legislature passed what is now called the Field Act, named after Assemblyman C. Don Field, R-Glendale. The law requires careful design and inspection of public school construction projects at K-12 schools and community colleges. Any person violating the act or making false statements in any verified report may be guilty of a felony.
There are two types of letters issued by the Division of the State Architect for projects without Field Act certification. A Letter 4 is issued when a project has unresolved safety issues. A Letter 3 is issued when important documents are missing that could suggest safety issues.
Focus (or hypocenter): The underground place where an earthquake starts.
Foreshock: A smaller quake that precedes some major earthquakes.
Letter 4 (Closeout Without Certification Due to Safety-Related Deficiencies): The state is supposed to issue these letters when a project has known, unresolved safety issues. The state had issued nearly 1,100 of these letters as of late 2010. But the state architect’s office began changing the status of hundreds of these building projects without visiting school sites.
Liquefaction: When water-saturated soil is shaken with enough force, the soil loses its strength and begins to act more like a liquid than a solid – essentially becoming like quicksand. The process can affect critical infrastructure, such as underground pipelines, airport runways, harbor facilities and road or highway surfaces. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, for instance, liquefaction caused severe damage to underground water pipes – hampering the fire department’s ability to control fires.
Liquefaction zones: The state has mapped areas where liquefaction has occurred during earthquakes, as well as areas of poorly compacted landfills. Any development within a liquefaction zone is supposed to be highly regulated under state law. Before a project can be permitted, builders must make sure the soil is safe enough for construction. Since 1998, the Natural Hazards Disclosure Act has required real estate sellers or their agents to inform buyers if a property is within one of these zones.
Magnitude: A measure of the amount of energy released by an earthquake; it does not measure the intensity of the shaking.
Seismic: Something that is caused by or related to an earthquake.
Stress: Pressure on underground rock caused when tectonic plates cannot move smoothly past one another.
Tectonic plate: One of the slabs of the earth’s crust.
Tsunami: A powerful, destructive sea wave from an undersea earthquake that travels at high speed across the ocean before smashing into land.
Valley fever: A sometimes-fatal flulike infection transmitted by airborne fungus; it can occur when the fungi are stirred into the air by anything that disrupts the soil, such as an earthquake. Billowing dust caused by the 1994 Northridge quake led to more than 200 reported cases. Dozens of people were hospitalized, and a 71-year-old Simi Valley man died. There are about 150,000 cases in the Southwest each year.

Contacts for schools, key players on seismic safety

Ashley Alvarado — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:02:46 +0000

Ashley Alvarado and Sarah Springfield

California Watch uncovered systematic failures by the state's chief regulator of construction standards for public schools. You can contact school officials, politicians and state agencies about earthquake safety.

School districts with Letter 4 projects

More detailed list of Letter 4 projects

Alum Rock Union Elementary School District

Phone: 408-928-6800

Write: 2930 Gay Ave.

San Jose, CA 95127

Website: www.arusd.org

Superintendent Jose Manzo: jose.manzo@arusd.org

Board of Education: www.arusd.org/2025106173291163/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55528

Bassett Unified School District

Phone: 626-931-3000

Write: 904 N. Willow Ave.

La Puente, CA 91746

Website: www.bassett.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Martin Galindo: mgalindo@bassett.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.bassett.k12.ca.us/index.php/district_office/board_of_education/board_members

Buellton Union School District

Phone: 805-688-4222

Write: 595 Second St.

Buellton, CA 93427

Website: http://buellton.ca.schoolwebpages.com

Superintendent Tom Cooper: http://buellton.ca.schoolwebpages.com/education/components/form/default.php?

Calipatria Unified School District

Phone: 760-348-2892

Write: 501 W. Main St.

Calipatria, CA 92233

Website: http://calipatria.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Douglas Kline: dkline@calipat.com

Board of Education: http://calipatria.k12.ca.us/Board/Members.htm

Charter Oak Unified School District

Phone: 626-966-8331

Write: 20240 E. Cienega Ave.

Covina, CA 91724

Website: www.cousd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Mike Hendricks: mhendricks@cousd.net

Board of Education: www.cousd.k12.ca.us/education/components/scdirectory

Claremont Unified School District

Phone: 909-398-0609

Write: 170 W. San Jose Ave.

Claremont, CA 91711

Website: www.cusd.claremont.edu

Superintendent Gloria Johnston: superintendent@cusd.claremont.edu

Board of Education: www.cusd.claremont.edu/boe/index.php

Coast Unified School District

Phone: 805-927-3880

Write: 1350 Main St.

Cambria, CA 93428

Website: www.coastusd.org

Superintendent Chris Adams: cadams@coastusd.org

Board of Education: mbetrue@coastusd.org

Compton Unified School District

Phone: 310-639-4321

Write: 501 S. Santa Fe Ave.

Compton, CA 90221

Website: http://web.compton.k12.ca.us

Interim Superintendent Karen Frison: kfrison@compton.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: http://web.compton.k12.ca.us/Pages/Board/BoardMembers.aspx

Desert Sands Unified School District

Phone: 760-777-4200

Write: 47-950 Dune Palms Road

La Quinta, CA 92253

Website: http://web1.dsusd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Sharon McGehee: sharon.mcgehee@dsusd.us

Board of Education: http://web1.dsusd.k12.ca.us/board/Pages/BoardMembers.aspx

Dinuba Unified School District

Phone: 559-595-7200

Write: 1327 E. El Monte Way

Dinuba, CA 93618

Website: www.dinubausd.org

Superintendent Joe Hernandez: jhernandez@dinuba.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.dinubausd.org/District/Department/79-Board-of-Education/7547-Board-Members.html

Fallbrook Union High School District

Phone: 760-723-6332

Write: 2234 S. Stage Coach Lane

Fallbrook, CA 92028

Website: http://fuhsd.edlioschool.com

Superintendent Dale Mitchell: http://fuhsd.edlioschool.com/apps/email/index.jsp?

Board of Education: http://fuhsd.edlioschool.com/board.jsp

Fillmore Unified School District

Phone: 805-524-6000

Write: 627 Sespe Ave.

Fillmore, CA 93015

Website: www.fillmore.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Alan Nishino: anishino@fillmore.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.fillmore.k12.ca.us/cms/one.aspx?portalId=1141568&pageId=1258123

Garvey Elementary School District

Phone: 626-307-3400

Write: 2730 N. Del Mar Ave.

Rosemead, CA 91770

Website: www.garvey.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Sandra Johnson: sjohnson@garvey.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.garvey.k12.ca.us/board_of_education

Glendora Unified School District

Phone: 626-963-1611

Write: 500 N. Loraine Ave.

Glendora, CA 91741

Website: www.glendora.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Robert Voors: rvoors@glendora.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.glendora.k12.ca.us/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1286003844984

Gratton Elementary School District

Phone: 209-632-0505

Write: 4500 S. Gratton Road

Denair, CA 95316

Hueneme Elementary School District

Phone: 805-488-3588

Write: 205 N. Ventura Road

Port Hueneme, CA 93041

Website: www.huensd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg: jdannenberg@huensd.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.huensd.k12.ca.us/213010102405312990/blank/browse.asp?a=383&bmdrn=2000&bcob=0&c=57868

Lake Elsinore Unified School District

Phone: 951-253-7000

Write: 545 Chaney St.

Lake Elsinore, CA 92530

Website: www.leusd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Susan Scott: sue.scott@leusd.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: http://leusd.schoolfusion.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?

Lancaster Elementary School District

Phone: 661-948-4661

Write: 44711 N. Cedar Ave.

Lancaster, CA 93534

Website: www.lancaster.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Howard Sundberg: www.lancaster.k12.ca.us/apps/email/index.jsp?

Board of Education: http://www.lancaster.k12.ca.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=81041&type=d

Livingston Union School District

Phone: 209-394-5400

Write: 922 B St.

Livingston, CA 95334

Website: www.lusd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Andres Zamora: azamora@lusd.k12.ca.us

Lodi Unified School District

Phone: 209-331-7010

Write: 1305 E. Vine St.

Lodi, CA 95240

Website: www.lodiusd.net

Superintendent Cathy Washer: cwasher@lodiusd.net

Board of Education: http://district-lusd-ca.schoolloop.com/file/1271058038780/1295706290730/1750955763063723002.pdf

Lompoc Unified School District

Phone: 805-742-3300

Write: 1301 N. A St.

Lompoc, CA 93436

Website: http://lusd.org

Superintendent Gregory Kampf: contact@lusd.org

Board of Education: http://lusd.org/domain/10

Long Beach Unified School District

Phone: 562-997-8000

Write: 1515 Hughes Way

Long Beach, CA 90810

Website: www.lbschools.net

Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser: cstein@lbschools.net

Board of Education: www.lbschools.net/Main_Offices/Board_of_Education

Los Alamitos Unified School District

Phone: 562-799-4700

Write: 10293 Bloomfield St.

Los Alamitos, CA 90720

Website: www.losal.org

Superintendent Sherry Kropp: skropp@losal.org

Board of Education: www.losal.org/1463101114192717217/site/default.asp

Los Angeles Unified School District

Phone: 213-241-7000

Write: P.O. Box 3307

Los Angeles, CA 90051

Website: http://notebook.lausd.net

Superintendent John Deasy: superintendent@lausd.net

Board of Education: www.lausd.k12.ca.us/district_directory

Modesto City Schools

Phone: 209-576-4011

Write: 426 Locust St.

Modesto, CA 95351

Website: http://mcs.monet.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Pam Able: able.p@monet.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: http://mcs.monet.k12.ca.us/District/Board%20Members.aspx

Mojave Unified School District

Phone: 661-824-4001

Write: 3500 Douglas Ave.

Mojave, CA 93501

Website: www.mojave.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Aaron Haughton: aaronhaughton@mojave.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.mojave.k12.ca.us/links/board.html

Moreno Valley Unified School District

Phone: 951-571-7500

Write: 25634 Alessandro Blvd.

Moreno Valley, CA 92553

Website: www.mvusd.net

Superintendent Judy White: www.mvusd.net/apps/email/index.jsp?

Board of Education: www.mvusd.net/district/schoolboard.jsp

Morgan Hill Unified School District

Phone: 408-201-6001

Write: 15600 Concord Circle

Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Website: www.mhu.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Wesley Smith: wes.smith@mhu.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.mhu.k12.ca.us/Board-of-Education/Meet-Your-Trustees/index.html

Mountain View School District

Phone: 626-652-4000

Write: 3320 Gilman Road

El Monte, CA 91732

Website: www.mtviewschools.com

Superintendent Lillian Maldonado French: lmfrench@mtview.k12.ca.us

Board of Education:

www.mtviewschools.com/board/board_members.jsp

Nevada Joint Union High School District

Phone: 530-273-3351

Write: 11645 Ridge Road

Grass Valley, CA 95945

Website: www.nuhsd.org

Superintendent Marianne Cartan: www.nuhsd.org/contact.cfm

Board of Education: www.nuhsd.org/board_members.cfm?

Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District

Phone: 209-862-2933

Write: 890 Main St.

Newman, CA 95360

Website: http://nclusd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Ed Felt: efelt@nclusd.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: http://nclusd.k12.ca.us/nclusd/Pages/BoardOfEducation.aspx?pid=10

Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District

Phone: 562-868-0431

Write: 12820 Pioneer Blvd.

Norwalk, CA 90650

Website: www.nlmusd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Ruth Pérez: rperez@nlmusd.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.nlmusd.k12.ca.us//Domain/53

Ocean View School District

Phone: 714-847-2551

Write: 17200 Pinehurst Lane

Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Website: www.ovsd.org

Superintendent William Loose: wloose@ovsd.org

Oxnard Union High School District

Phone: 805-385-2500

Write: 309 S. K St.

Oxnard, CA 93030

Website: www.ouhsd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Gabe Soumakian: sup@ouhsd.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.ouhsd.k12.ca.us/about/schoolboard

Palmdale School District

Phone: 661-947-7191

Write: 39139 N. 10th St. East

Palmdale, CA 93550

Website: www.palmdalesd.org

Superintendent Roger Gallizzi: rdgallizzi@palmdalesd.org

Board of Education: www.palmdalesd.org/page/24

Panama-Buena Vista Union School District

Phone: 661-831-8331

Write: 4200 Ashe Road

Bakersfield, CA 93313

Website: www.pbvusd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Kip Hearron: kiph@pbvusd.net

Board of Education: http://www.pbvusd.k12.ca.us/index.cfm?fuseaction=frame&menu_id=22

Pierce Joint Unified School District

Phone: 530-476-2829

Write: P.O. Box 239

Arbuckle, CA 95912

Website: www.pierce.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Patricia Hamilton: www.pierce.k12.ca.us/education/components/form

Pomona Unified School District

Phone: 909-397-4800

Write: 800 S. Garey Ave.

Pomona, CA 91766

Website: www.pusd.org

Superintendent Richard Martinez: www.pusd.org/education/components/form

Board of Education: www.pusd.org/education/components/scdirectory

Rescue Union Elementary School District

Phone: 530-677-4461

Write: 2390 Bass Lake Road

Rescue, CA 95672

Website: http://rusd-ca.schoolloop.com

Superintendent David Swart: slaurel@rescue.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: http://rusd-ca.schoolloop.com/Board

Richgrove Elementary School District

Phone: 661-725-2427

Write: P.O. Box 540

Richgrove, CA 93261

Website: www.richgrove.org

Superintendent Frank Chavez: frank@richgrove.org

Robla School District

Phone: 916-991-1728

Write: 5248 Rose St.

Sacramento, CA 95838

Website: www.robla.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Ruben Reyes: rreyes@robla.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.robla.k12.ca.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=66&Itemid=70

Sanger Unified School District

Phone: 559-524-6521

Write: 1905 Seventh St.

Sanger, CA 93657

Website: www.sanger.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Marcus Johnson: marc_johnson@sanger.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.sanger.k12.ca.us/Board

San Jose Unified School District

Phone: 408-535-6000

Write: 855 Lenzen Ave.

San Jose, CA 95126

Website: www.sjusd.org

Superintendent Vincent Matthews: vincent_matthews@sjusd.org

Board of Education: www.sjusd.org/school/district-new/info/C120

San Luis Coastal Unified School District

Phone: 805-549-1200

Write: 1500 Lizzie St.

San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

Website: www.slcusd.org

Superintendent Eric Prater: eprater@slcusd.org

Board of Education: www.slcusd.org/schoolboard/meettheboard

San Miguel Joint Union School District

Phone: 805-467-3216

Write: 1601 L St.

San Miguel, CA 93451

Website: www.sanmiguelschools.org

Superintendent Curt Dubost: cdubost@smjusd.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.sanmiguelschools.org/district/emails.pdf

San Ramon Valley Unified School District

Phone: 925-552-5500

Write: 699 Old Orchard Drive

Danville, CA 94526

Website: www.srvusd.net

Superintendent Steven Enoch: senoch@srvusd.net

Contact the Board of Education: www.srvusd.net/district/board_contact

Santa Maria-Bonita School District

Phone: 805-928-1783

Write: 708 S. Miller St.

Santa Maria, CA 93454

Website: www.smbsd.org

Superintendent Phillip Alvarado: palvarado@smbsd.net

Board of Education: www.smbsd.org/page.cfm?p=1863

Santa Maria Joint Union High School District

Phone: 805-922-4573

Write: 2560 Skyway Drive

Santa Maria, CA 93455

Website: www.smjuhsd.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Doug Kimberly: dkimberly@smjuhsd.org

Board of Education: www.smjuhsd.k12.ca.us/toplevels/view/1

Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District

Phone: 805-688-6487

Write: P.O. Box 398

Santa Ynez, CA 93460

Website: www.syvuhsd.org

Superintendent Paul Turnbull: pturnbull@syvuhsd.org

Board of Education: www.syvuhsd.org/Page/5

Silver Valley Unified School District

Phone: 760-254-2916

Write: 35320 Daggett-Yermo Road

Yermo, CA 92398

Website: www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Marc Jackson: superintendent@silvervalley.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/District/Department/253-Board-of-Education/1863-School-Board-Members.html

Simi Valley Unified School District

Phone: 805-306-4500

Write: 875 E. Cochran St.

Simi Valley, CA 93065

Website: www.simi.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Kathryn Scroggin: kscroggin@simi.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.simi.k12.ca.us/Default.aspx?alias=www.simi.k12.ca.us/Board

Torrance Unified School District

Phone: 310-972-6500

Write: 2335 Plaza del Amo

Torrance, CA 90501

Website: www.tusd.org

Superintendent George Mannon: superintendent@tusd.org

Board of Education:www.tusd.org/BoardofEducation/MembersMeetingSchedule/tabid/404/Default.aspx

Vallecito Union School District

Phone: 209-795-8500

Write: P.O. Box 329

Avery, CA 95224

Website: www.vusd.wikispaces.net

Superintendent Phyllis Parisi: pparisi@vsd.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.vusd.wikispaces.net/School+Board

Valle Lindo School District

Phone: 626-580-0610

Write: 1431 N. Central Ave.

South El Monte, CA 91733

Website: www.vallelindo.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Mary Louise Labrucherie: mllabrucherie@vallelindo.k12.ca.us

Whittier Union High School District

Phone: 562-698-8121

Write: 9401 S. Painter Ave.

Whittier, CA 90605

Website: www.wuhsd.org

Superintendent Sandra Thorstenson: superintendent@wuhsd.org

Board of Education: www.wuhsd.org/Page/258

Wiseburn School District

Phone: 310-643-3025

Write: 13530 Aviation Blvd.

Hawthorne, CA 90250

Website: www.wiseburn.k12.ca.us

Superintendent Tom Johnstone: wtsubaki@wiseburn.k12.ca.us

Board of Education: www.wiseburn.k12.ca.us/new/Board/default_%20bd%20members.html

For more information on school boards, you can search by region on the California School Boards Association website.

Key players

Here are people and agencies you can contact regarding seismic safety at public schools.

Gov. Jerry Brown
Phone: 916-445-2841
Write: State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
E-mail: http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php
Website: http://gov.ca.gov/

Office of the Attorney General
Phone: 916-322-3360
Write: Attorney General’s Office
California Department of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
E-mail: http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=PL
Website: http://oag.ca.gov

State Architect Chester "Chet" Widom
Phone: 916-445-8100
Write: 1102 Q St., Suite 5100
Sacramento, CA 95811
E-mail: widom.chester@dgs.ca.gov
Website: www.dgs.ca.gov/dsa/

Speaker of the Assembly John A. Pérez
Phone: 916-319-2046
Write: State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0046
E-mail: http://asmdc.org/speaker/meet-john/email-john-a-perez
Website: http://asmdc.org/speaker

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
Phone: 916-651-4006
Write: State Capitol, Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
E-mail: http://legplcms01.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/ContactPopup.aspx?district=SD06
Website: http://dist06.casen.govoffice.com

State Senate Majority Leader Ellen M. Corbett (sponsored AB 300)
Phone: 916-651-4010
Write: State Capitol, Room 313
Sacramento, CA 95814
E-mail: http://dist10.casen.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={7AA698F8-93BA-4092-A431-BAB3C7EF7E46 }
Website: http://dist10.casen.govoffice.com/

California Seismic Safety Commission
Phone: 916-263-5506
Write: 1755 Creekside Oaks Drive, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95833-3637
E-mail: celli@stateseismic.com
Website: www.seismic.ca.gov
Director: Richard J. McCarthy (mccarthy@stateseismic.com)

California Department of Education
Phone: 916-319-0800
Write: 1430 N St.
Sacramento, CA 95814-5901
E-mail: www.cde.ca.gov/re/di/cd/ap/mainpage.aspx

Senate Education Committee
Phone: 916-651-4105
Website: www.sen.ca.gov/ftp/sen/committee/standing/education/_home1/profile.htm
Chair: Alan Lowenthal (916-651-4027 or Senator.Lowenthal@senate.ca.gov)

Assembly Education Committee
Phone: 916-319-2087
Website: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/newcomframeset.asp?committee=6
Chair: Julia Brownley (916-319-2041 or Assemblymember.Brownley@assembly.ca.gov)

California Geological Survey
You can request that the California Geological Survey study the liquefaction in your area and recommend ways the foundation can be fortified.
Phone: 916-445-1923
Write: 801 K St., MS 12-30
Sacramento, CA 95814
E-mail: cgshq@consrv.ca.gov
Website: www.consrv.ca.gov/CGS/Pages/Index.aspx

Office of Public School Construction
Phone: 916-376-1771
Write: P.O. Box 980610
West Sacramento, CA 95798-0610
E-mail: OPSCNews@dgs.ca.gov
Website: www.dgs.ca.gov/opsc

State Allocation Board
Phone: 916-375-4751
Website: www.dgs.ca.gov/opsc/AboutUs/sab.aspx

State Mining & Geology Board
Phone: 916-322-1082
Write: 801 K St., Suite 2015
Sacramento, CA 95814
E-mail: smgb@consrv.ca.gov
Website: www.conservation.ca.gov/smgb/Pages/Index.aspx

Contractor’s State License Board

Phone: 800-321-CSLB

Write: P.O. Box 26000

Sacramento, CA 95826

Website: www.cslb.ca.gov

To file a complaint: www.cslb.ca.gov/Consumers/FilingAComplaint

Check the status of a contractor's license: https://www2.cslb.ca.gov/OnlineServices/CheckLicenseII/CheckLicense.aspx

California Architects Board

Phone: 916-574-7220

Write: 2420 Del Paso Road, Suite 105

Sacramento, CA 95834

E-mail: cab@dca.ca.gov

Website: www.cab.ca.gov

License verification: www.cab.ca.gov/consumers/license_verification.shtml

California State PTA
Phone: 916-440-1985
Write: 2327 L St.
Sacramento, CA 95816-5014
E-mail: www.capta.org/sections/tools/contactus.cfm
Website: www.capta.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/California-State-PTA/133894939861

Click here to find your local PTA district office.

How to get involved in seismic safety

Ashley Alvarado — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:02:36 +0000

Ashley Alvarado and Sarah Springfield

Like our reporting? Help us do more.

Here are ways that you can learn more and get involved in earthquake safety at schools in your community.

First, find out whether your child’s school appears on the state’s list of schools with seismic safety concerns (the AB 300 list). You also should find out if the school has uncertified construction projects under the Field Act (including Letter 4 projects) or is near a fault, landslide or liquefaction zone.

You can do this by searching California Watch’s interactive database of the state’s public K-12 schools. The list does not include charter schools; charter schools are not required to use buildings that are certified under the Field Act, unless they use state funds for construction or renovation or include the Field Act in their charters.

Many schools meet all of the state’s seismic safety criteria and are located away from faults or liquefaction zones. The risk for students in these schools is considered small, but parents will want to make sure their children are prepared.

If your school has any additional risks or red flags – or you are concerned about seismic safety in schools in general – there are a number of individuals and organizations you can contact, beginning with the school principal, the district superintendent or the school board. For more information on how to investigate, read our primer here.

Depending on the potential safety issues you find at your school through our database, you may want to ask the school principal, district superintendent or school board the following questions:

Your school lacks Field Act certification and/or has Letter 4 projects

Which buildings within the school lack Field Act certification?
Why hasn’t the project been certified?
If paperwork is missing, is there any way you can guarantee the necessary safety precautions were followed during construction?
Are these uncertified buildings in use by students and staff?
If school officials say their buildings are certified under the Field Act, the public can ask for a copy of the letter of certification from the Division of the State Architect. If you obtain this document and are willing to share it, please e-mail us at seismic@californiawatch.org.

Your school is near a fault or liquefaction zone

Have all buildings received Field Act certification?
If the school was built before 1972, has it been retrofitted?
If the school was built in a liquefaction zone prior to it being designated as a liquefaction zone, has it been retrofitted?

Click here for the contact information for the state's 30 largest school districts.

Your school appears on the AB 300 list

Can you tell me what, if anything, has been done about making seismic upgrades to these buildings since the AB 300 report was completed in 2002?
Has a seismic review been conducted?
Are students and staff using these buildings?
If unsafe conditions continue to exist, what can be done to address them?
What is the estimated cost of making seismic upgrades?

If school officials claim to have resolved safety problems with buildings on the AB 300 list, members of the public can request the following documentation:

The Division of the State Architect application ID number for the project and/or the Office of Public School Construction number
The approval letter from the state architect’s office, which comes when plans are approved, and the certification letter that the work was completed according to Field Act standards
If you obtain these documents and are willing to share them, please e-mail us at seismic@californiawatch.org.

California Watch - K–12

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Rural schools struggle to keep buses running

State seismic regulators destroyed key records

Kindergarten math skills key to later success, researchers say

State identifies school projects with safety concerns

Thousands of students attending schools with unresolved safety issues

Frequently asked questions

My school is near a seismic hazard, is on the AB 300 list or has uncertified projects. Does this mean it won’t withstand an earthquake?

What are the different types of uncertified projects?

Your story says there are at least 20,000 uncertified projects. Are these all included in the interactive map?

The original AB 300 report says there are 9,659 buildings listed. Why are the numbers in your interactive database different?

Why is my school showing up in the wrong location? How do I get that fixed?

What is a landslide or landslide zone?

I know there are liquefaction and landslide zones in my area. Why aren’t they showing up on the map?

Glossary of earthquake terms

Contacts for schools, key players on seismic safety

React and Act home

School districts with Letter 4 projects

Key players

How to get involved in seismic safety

React and Act home