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By Connie Llanos, daily news Staff Writer | http://bit.ly/i83O9F
Building materials are stored in a construction area at Erwin St. Elementary School recently. (Andy Holzman/L.A. Daily News)
03/07/2011 07:54:42 PM PST/Updated: 03/07/2011 08:06:56 PM PST - State regulators have given Los Angeles Unified until Friday to provide certified construction inspectors at 14 campuses or face a shutdown of the improvement projects for violating state law.
Certified letters sent March 4 by the Division of the State Architect warn that stop-work orders may be issued if the district misses its deadline for providing inspectors to "competently, adequately and continuously" oversee the construction and renovation projects.
"The LAUSD's failure to do so may compromise the integrity of the buildings, thereby endangering the public safety," say the letters from Howard "Chip" Smith, acting state architect.
District officials said that inspectors were being reassigned Monday to cover all of 14 of the projects.
Kelly Schmader, LAUSD's director of maintenance and operations, said the district had previously assigned a part-time inspector to most of the 14 projects.
"This is an administrative problem," Schmader said. "It's not as if inspection hasn't been going on in this project."
The Daily News reported Feb. 28 that LAUSD laid off 37 of its 112 certified inspectors in December, leaving dozens of school construction sites without a full-time overseer to ensure compliance with building and safety codes.
California's Education Code requires districts to provide continuous oversight by state-certified inspectors of all school construction or renovation projects.
After warning the district since January about the requirement for full-time inspectors, the State Architect's office recently sent engineers to 20 of Los Angeles Unified's more extensive construction projects.
The engineers found that 14 lacked adequate inspection, including Verdugo Hills High, and Coldwater Canyon and Erwin Street Elementary schools, which are undergoing major renovations.
Gretchen Zeagler, spokeswoman for the State Architect, said the agency expects to send field engineers to review additional projects in the near future.
In its notice to comply, the State Architect warns it may issue a stop-work order unless the district assigns a state-certified inspector to each of the sites.
The state can also withhold certification of projects that have not been properly inspected.
Under state law, that opens the school district and the school board to liability for construction-related malfunctions or accidents. The school district may also be ordered to repay state funds awarded to certified projects.
Some school board members said they were surprised to receive the State Architect's letters, saying they had been assured that the district was in compliance with state law.
"In light of the information I was given last week, where I was told there were no issues, and in light of these subsequent letters from the state, I can see there is clearly a problem and the district needs to get to the bottom of this right away," said school board member Yolie Flores.
In an e-mail sent last week to board members and other district officials, Chief Facilities Executive James Sohn downplayed the visit by the State Architect's engineers.
"As a point of fact, on February 25, 2011, DSA Field Engineers independently examined the 20 projects alleged to have no inspection coverage. In all but one instance, the project was found to be either complete, suspended or adequately covered by Inspection," Sohn said.
"The single project without a formally assigned Inspector was a very small, low-voltage project. This is not to state that no inspection was taking place, but rather that the administrative paperwork to assign that project to a specific Inspector had not been completed."
LAUSD has been engaged in a massive school construction program since 1997 - funded with $20 billion from four voter-approved bonds.
Over the last 14 years the district has completed thousands of projects, including 81 new schools, and hundreds of renovations.
The district expects to receive an additional $7 billion from a fifth bond, which will be used to upgrade and modernize aging campuses beginning in 2016.
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