Round 1 of schools nearly complete

Marisa O’Neil

As construction starts to wind down at the first batch of schools

undergoing Measure A renovations, bids are going out on work set to

start later this year.

Voters overwhelmingly passed the $110-million bond in June 2000 to

improve local schools. The entire program schedule includes four

groups of schools.

Construction on the first seven schools broke ground in April, but

the bulk of the work could not be done until the students cleared out

in June.

Workers at Monte Vista and Back Bay Alternative Education high

schools and Whittier and Woodland elementary schools are expected to

finish by the middle of November, and at Newport Heights and Mariners

elementary by the end of the month. Finish dates for Kaiser

Elementary and the troubled Harbor View Elementary have been pushed

back.

“Things are not completely done,” Bonnie Martin, program manager

for project manager McCarthy Building Companies, said. “But most of

the restroom issues are resolved, and the Porta Pottis are mostly

gone.”

At Harbor View, one bank of portable toilets left the site

Thursday and two of the school restrooms should be working by today,

Principal Mellissia Christensen said. Two more should be functioning

by Monday, but the toilets for the administration won’t be ready for

a while, she said.

Harbor View started the school year a week later than other

district schools because of unforeseen dry rot and termite problems

that put off some project completion dates. When classes did start,

teachers and parents improvised to get around problems such as

nonfunctioning water fountains and no school bells.

“We’re just doing what we need to do to get things done around

here,” Christensen said.

Things are still not going according to plans at Harbor View. One

completed handicapped ramp had to be torn up and redone, and boards

still cover spaces where windows should be in many otherwise

completed classrooms.

During this week’s heat wave, the rooms, which have little

ventilation, reached sweltering temperatures. Children and teachers

toughed it out, even when their crayons melted.

Construction should be finished at Harbor View by the end of

December, Martin said. Kaiser, which added a new phase to its plan

this summer, should wrap up in February.

Bids for Wilson and College Park elementary schools and Davis

Education Center are out now, and bids for Killybrooke and Sonora

elementary schools will go out next week. Construction should start

shortly after bids are awarded, Martin said.

Schools in the next phase will start construction a few days

apart, rather than all at the same time, to allow project managers

more time to go over plans with contractors, she said.

Construction on some of the schools in groups three is slated to

begin in August 2004.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.