Glendora Unified Continues Bringing School Safety Measures up to Code

Five months after an investigative report revealed severe lapses in seismic inspection procedures by Sacramento, districts across the state have the daunting task of re-analyzing, locating and resubmitting missing or incomplete paperwork needed to prove their buildings are structurally sound.

“We’re trying to find the paper trail to find out where the missing links are,” said Marc Chaldu, assistant superintendent of business services for . “Unfortunately we still have to go back and make sure all the other projects were submitted correctly. That’s kind of the process we’re still looking through.”

In April of this year, investigative journalism web site California Watch conducted a 19-month investigation of the Division of State Architect, a department charged with certifying the safety and accessibility of K-12 and community college buildings.

The report revealed that a severe lapse in inspection responsibilities by the DSA and a surge in school construction many years prior led to thousands of projects standing without seismic approval.

Glendora Unified School District was found to have currently deemed unsafe. Five schools have structures listed as DSA certified with a Letter 3 designation; such structures are those that are completed with missing certification paperwork.

Stanton Elementary was the only school in the GUSD that has a structure listed as Letter 4, a designation listing structures as seismically vulnerable. Some of the Letter 4 certifications involved the buildings proximity to a fault zone as well as having potentially unsafe lighting or windows.

Some of the Letter 3 designations came with a double-edged sword.

California Watch revealed that in the 1990s the DSA filed hundreds of Letter 4 structures as Letter 3 in order to speed up the certification backlog without so much as even a visit to affected schools. The same happened early 2010 after California Watch spoke with the DSA.

As for determining which of Glendora’s schools have the correct certification, it may be a while until the paperwork maze is sorted out.

“The turnaround time used to be fairly quickly in construction terms, but over the past 18 months to two years it’s been horrendous,” Chaldu said. “Sometimes it takes 90 days to get projects back.”

With some of the recent within Glendora Unified, certifications for other school sites were upgraded because missing paperwork was located and updated, according to Chaldu.

In 2006, voters approved Prop 1D, a bond generating billions in funds for construction and modernization projects for K-14 schools across the state. Some $200 million was set aside for seismic retrofitting.

State leaders, however, feared a mad rush by districts to get their slice of the funding pie.

The Schwarzenegger administration created a list of very high criteria to determine a district’s eligibility. The end result made it very difficult for most of the state’s districts to get needed funding. Only two schools have received the funding—San Ramon Valley High School and Piedmont High School.

Hart High School in Newhall is the only Los Angeles County school that qualified for the seismic mitigation funding.

“That was some pretty darn interesting reading,” Chaldu said. “It’s been a rollercoaster ever since they … somewhat released that money.”

Relief may be coming, though.

In June, the State Allocation Board amended the regulations allowing more schools to gain access to the money.

Every district still must seek the DSA’s determination as to whether buildings in question meet structural criteria:

-School structure(s) must be listed as Category 2, in accordance with AB 300.

- Said building(s) must be designed for use by students and staff.

- A structural engineers report must detail building deficiencies and reasons why structure(s) are vulnerable.

- The DSA must concur with engineer’s report, paving way for seismic mitigation funding.

In the face of the task at hand, the district is continually developing emergency plans.

Every October 20, California conducts the Great California Shakeout, an emergency drill testing the response to a potential earthquake.

Individual, business and schools all participate in the drill.

“We have always had great results from participation in the California Shake out,” Chaldu said.  “We are constantly looking at new ways to improve our disaster drills and practices.”

Some of those methods include working with the city and the fire department to analyze the district’s safety standards.

“The city’s been doing a great job to help us out with that, too,” Chaldu said. “We want to maintain good communication with the city.”