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.
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