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Tour of Select Schools Reveals Some Improvements, Lingering Problems
By Allison
Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff
Writer
Following the findings in a recent forensic audit of the school
district’s facilities modernization program, The Compton Bulletin
toured several schools to view first hand the quality of completed improvements
as well what has yet to be repaired.
Last Tuesday, Nov. 28, Compton Unified School District (CUSD) interim
Chief Facilities Operator Alvin Jenkins escorted the paper on a brief
tour of four sites. Visited were Kennedy and Caldwell elementaries, Vanguard
Middle and Dominguez High schools.
The Bulletin recently reported that, according to the audit, CUSD
has spent $214 million of the $216 million it allocated for site modernization — $80
million of which came from the Measure I bond local voters passed in
2002 — at the district’s deteriorating schools. Only two
schools, however, are complete. And even then, according to Del Terra,
an independent contracting firm specializing in school bond programs
hired by the district to perform the audit, much of the work falls into
the “substandard” category.
Superintendent Jesse Gonzales Ph.D. emphasized that the district
did not drop the ball with the bond money. It was inflation and the ever-soaring
cost of construction materials that led to the district’s already
spending a majority of the money it accumulated to begin modernization
improvements at Compton’s deteriorated schools. Bids that were
made in 1999 and 2000 dollars were much lower than what costs were when
construction began in the following years, he said.
And the paper has learned through sources that Del Terra at one
time wanted the construction contract held by GKK Works/GKK Corporation,
which could have influenced the findings in the audit Del Terra prepared.
The Bulletin visited several classrooms chosen at random, libraries
and cafeterias/ kitchens at the aforementioned sites.
As far as classrooms are concerned, on the whole, many improvements
have been made: new flooring, new ceiling tiles in most classrooms, new
cabinetry, state-of-the-art television mounts and new air conditioning.
But despite the air conditioning units installed a couple of years
ago at Dominguez, two teachers in two different buildings said the air
conditioning isn’t working. One teacher, who instructs an English
class in a room meant for a science class, said that even with fans,
she and her students literally drip with sweat during the warmer months.
She said her air conditioning has never worked and that she’s complained
to the principal and the district multiple times over the past two years,
but no one has ever addressed the issue.
Jenkins attributed it to a thermostat, which appeared brand new,
askew on the wall that he said a student had obviously tampered with.
But the teacher insisted the air conditioning has never worked.
At each school, some of the cabinet doors appear to be slightly
misaligned. In the Dominguez library office, new cabinetry was installed
on one side of the office and old cabinetry left on the other side. In
Vanguard’s parent center, a handle on one of the cabinets is already
broken.
Of the schools visited, Kennedy Elementary, where the district
holds board meetings, appears to be in the best shape. All improvements
appeared to be of decent quality to the amateur eye, though in one first-floor
classroom a bucket was set out beneath a leak in the ceiling.
Some Sites Better Off Than Others
Each school was allotted an amount of money based on enrollment,
Jenkins explained. It was then up to a committee to prioritize what needed
immediate attention.
“The whole committee sat down with the architects, building team
leaders, staff, parents, PTAs, and they all talked about it. ‘If
we get X amount of dollars, what do you want to do?’”
Interestingly, despite a needs assessment completed by the district
in 2000 calling for roof replacement at many sites, Jenkins said the
decision was made to install air conditioning units and do patchwork
instead.
But The Bulletin noticed water damage on new ceiling panels in
a Caldwell classroom, and at Dominguez, severe water damage to a science
classroom’s ceiling.
Asked why the committee would decide on air conditioning rather
than new roofs, Jenkins said that “at the time, they said that
the roofs still had a warranty on them, so rather than spending money
on new roofs or whatever, they came up with a scope of work, and that’s
what they went by.”
Jenkins said the schools in the worst shape are Caldwell Elementary,
Cesar Chavez Alternative and Walton Middle schools. It was at these schools
that the district “did the bare minimum. There just wasn’t
enough money.”
Superintendent Gonzales met up with The Bulletin on the last leg
of the tour. He said that if he had been in control back when the modernization
program was launched — the state’s Randy Ward was at the
helm at that time — he would have stressed quality over quantity.
But because the opposite was stressed, and the district only had half
the money it knew it needed to fully revamp all the sites, it’s
landed itself in the position it’s in: nearly out of money with
a lot of what Del Terra describes as questionable work and a whole lot
more work remaining.
The Bottom Line
Jenkins said that from the beginning, the modernization project,
which began while the state still controlled the district, got off to
a rocky start. He explained that many of the architectural plans were
rushed in order to meet funding deadlines.
“What happened is that by rushing the plans, some mistakes were
made,” said Jenkins. The district, under Ward’s control,
he said, had a tough choice to make: submit flawed plans and receive
funding or submit no plans at all and receive nothing; selecting
the former option is what put CUSD in the position it is in today.
Some of the plans were so deficient that in one case the demolition
of a floor was called for, but installation of new flooring was not included,
Jenkins said. The result: expensive change orders, which Del Terra described
the total frequency and cost of as being unusually high, unnecessarily
spiking costs.
“I guess they thought they’d worry about it on down the road,
and here we are,” said Jenkins. “A lot of those change orders
are pretty high.”
Jenkins, who has been with the district for 25 years and for now
succeeds James Larry Scott, said construction change orders on average
amount to about 10 percent more than estimated costs.
But an internal audit of the Facilities Department conducted by
accountancy company Nigro Nigro & White (NNW) earlier this year found
that change orders from the two major players in the modernization program,
GKK and Chevron Energy Solutions, were much higher than the average given
by Jenkins.
According to NNW, GKK racked up $3.8 million in school board-approved
change orders amounting to 26 percent of the original contract costs,
and Chevron raked in $10.1 million amounting to 14 percent of the original
contract costs.
Jenkins attributes this to how severely run down and deteriorated
the schools were when the bond was passed. Their having been in a state
of disrepair for decades drove costs up even further.
“Some of these schools, we’ve never touched these schools,” most
of which were constructed in the 1950s and ‘60s. “The powers
that be before us didn’t go after the money [to modernize the schools],
and now we’re trying to play catch-up.”
The money he spoke of is provided by the state through Proposition
47, the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act
of 2002. Compton used this to get an $80-million match to augment the
Measure I bond.
According to Jenkins, school districts are able to go after this
money for facilities improvements every 25 years under Prop 47.
The most expensive change orders came from asbestos remediation,
which was necessary at nearly every school, according to the interim
chief facilities operator. The type of flooring used when the schools
were constructed contained asbestos, and re-flooring classrooms district-wide
was a top priority.
But if the district, which was under state control at that time,
was well aware that the schools had been constructed when materials containing
asbestos were routinely used, why was remediation not anticipated and
included in the plans from the beginning?
District officials, overall, want people to focus on the improvements
that have been made.
“I’m just glad we’re not where we used to be,” said
Jenkins. “It was bad. It was really, really bad.”
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