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School
Board Approves $2.8 Million to Rehab Compton High Science Labs
Teachers struggling
to provide adequate science instruction in ramshackle labs
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – In
what appears to be a glaring oversight in the district’s upkeep
of school site facilities, the school board last week found itself
between a rock and a hard spot: Approve a $2.8 million emergency contract
to rehab Compton High School’s dangerously dilapidated physical
science and math buildings or effectively discontinue all science instruction
during the upcoming school year, meaning students would not be able
to graduate.
Buildings X and Y on the roughly 100-year-old campus are an embarrassment
and provide an unhealthy, unsafe learning environment, according to
teachers. They say they struggle to provide appropriate instruction
that equips their students with the skills they need to move on to
college.
“It’s dirty. It’s nasty. It’s unhealthy, and
we can’t
breathe appropriately,” said science teacher Ceron Christie,
who has worked at the school for four years and says the buildings
have been in their current state of disrepair since her first day on
campus.
Laboratory classrooms where experiments are supposed to be conducted
lack any form ventilation, running water, natural gas, even adequate
lighting and electricity. Fire alarms do not work. Fire extinguishers
are missing. The emergency eyewash apparatus is non-functional. Outdated
materials used to construct the classrooms contain asbestos and formaldehyde.
Chemicals and other materials used for labs are stored in unventilated
storage closets and are not securely stored. There are no window coverings.
Windowsills are filthy and deteriorating. Doors are missing handles.
The ceiling is falling apart.
“The (ceiling) tiles are falling off and hitting kids on the
head,” said
Christie.
It’s so bad that students in LaKeisha White’s classes regularly
make verbal bets as to during which period a ceiling tile will fall
and on whom it will land. In one of her classes, a portion of a decaying
windowsill fell and hit a student.
“That’s how said it’s become,” said Christie.
The board unanimously approved hiring the district’s current
contracted facilities project manager, Del Terra, to complete costly
repairs over the summer in order to get Buildings X and Y into an at
least functional and safe state by the first day of school next fall.
The remaining repairs will be completed at a later date.
Approval of such a large no-bid contract on an emergency basis is permitted
by state law as long as the district receives approval from the County
Superintendent of Schools and such work is necessary to permit the
continuance of existing school classes or to avoid danger to life or
property, according to the district’s legal counsel relative
to facilities, David M. Huff. The district has met both criteria.
The move came after the board’s rushed consideration June 10
of purchasing 10 modular classrooms, five of which would be equipped
to provide hands-on laboratory instruction. That potential decision
was pondered only under the misguided notion on district staff’s
behalf that the buildings were in such disrepair that they needed to
be condemned.
Several board members, especially Micah Ali, hinted that there might
have been a political reason behind staff’s push for modular
buildings. And this could be the case, because Christie said that architects
last Tuesday visited her classroom during class time and attempted
to persuade her into throwing her support behind modulars.
Burnside described such actions as “totally inappropriate,” saying
she had no knowledge that teachers were being lobbied in such a manner.
Ali said he’s “never heard of such nonsense.”
Both Christie and White were emphatic that things have gotten better
since Burnside assumed control of the district. Before she arrived,
they didn’t even have access to the requisite materials to teach
labs that adhere to state-mandated curriculum guidelines. Basic items
like beakers, chemicals, perishables and “disectables.”
Christie, who instructs both regular and advanced placement classes,
said she was previously forced to borrow materials from a Long Beach
Unified school in order to squeak her students by and allow them to
graduate.
A History of Neglect
So how did things get so bad, and why have they been allowed to persist
for so long?
Ongoing neglect and inadequate maintenance over a period of decades
that was fueled by a total breakdown in communication between department
heads – that’s how, according to officials.
Interim Chief of Facilities Alvin “A.J.” Jenkins said he’s
been aware of the disturbing state of the buildings for years, and
so did his predecessor, Larry Scott. Jenkins said it “would have
been nice” to include repairs in the 2005 modernization work
done at the home of the Tarbabes as part of the district’s embattled
facilities modernization program, but there just wasn’t enough
money and the state only approved repairs to what he termed “paths
of travel.”
Back when Scott headed facilities, the maintenance department was part
of the facilities department. When Scott left and A.J. moved up to
fill the position on a temporary basis, Dr. Jesse Gonzales and the
board placed Kelcey Richardson, a principal at Dominguez High, in charge
of a new department with a marathon name: Instructional Compliance,
Maintenance, Grounds and Transportation.
Jenkins amounts the lack of action in more recent years as a result
of a major breakdown in communication after this relocation of responsibilities.
According to Deputy Superintendent Robert Nero, who oversees both Jenkins’ and
Richardson’s departments, he has also been aware of the problems
since he came on board a couple of years ago. He said that whenever
he brought up the issue, he was told that “it has always been
this way.”
Whatever the reason – and no one’s jumping at the chance
to shoulder the blame – the fact that the district has failed
to adequately maintain these buildings and for such a long period of
time, according to Huff, puts the district in direct violation of two
court rulings, Serna v. Easton and Williams v. State of California.
“The fact is undeniable that they (the buildings) have been allowed
to deteriorate,” said Huff.
Serna waged that the state Department of Education had failed to provide
students in Compton with an equal and adequate education and a safe
learning environment following the state’s 1993 takeover. Out
of that case came a ruling that the district is legally obligated to
provide a learning environment that is equally comparable to that of
students in the surrounding area.
The Williams case, which is more recent, netted statewide legislation
that requires schools to, among other things, maintain safe, clean
facilities in good repair.
Del Terra, during its inspection of the buildings, found that over
time, basic health and safety issues were not addressed. State assisted
maintenance programs were not used. Changes mandated by advancements
in curriculum and evolving safety needs were not met.
Board member Satra Zurita expressed outrage at district staff’s
apparent inaction.
“To know that these facilities are like this because of lack
of maintenance is totally unacceptable,” she said. “We
are failing our children if we can’t provide them with the facilities
they need to graduate.”
Fellow board member Joel Estrada agrees. He said that after recently
taking a tour of the facilities in question, he was “astonished.”
“We are failing our students horribly,” he said. “We
are endangering the lives of people’s children.”
A Rush on Repairs
Del Terra’s Delbert E. Benson said that his company can complete
enough of the repairs this summer to allow the school to provide adequate
and safe science instruction come the first day of the 2008-09 school
year.
Work, he said last week, was slated to start immediately.
Among the issues to be addressed now are repair of the natural gas
leak that resulted in district staff simply turning the gas completely
off rather than fixing the leak; providing in-room air circulation,
which is key when chemicals are in use; and repair and/or replacement
of storage and workroom ventilators. Additionally, floors, ceilings,
door hardware, damaged windows, defective and damaged chalkboards and
whiteboards will be repaired and interior lighting will be improved.
The second phase of the work will include complete replacement of the
window and floor systems, hot water boiler, laboratory tabletops and
roof. That work is tentatively scheduled to commence during the 2010-11
school year due to funding and other issues, Del Terra officials said.
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