Schools

Probe Raises Questions About Seismic Safety of RUSD Schools

Investigative report finds flaws in state's system for determining if older schools are seismically sound.

Four schools in the Redlands Unified School District, which also serves students from Loma Linda, are among more than 7,500 potentially hazardous California campuses now under scrutiny in the wake of an investigative report released Thursday.

Buildings at Smiley and Victoria elementary schools, Cope Middle School and Redlands High School were identified as seismically unfit in a 2002 survey, prompted by Assembly Bill 300. The schools were built before the 1976 Uniform Building Code, therefore none were held to current seismic standards.

The school buildings listed in the survey were not expected to withstand future earthquakes and urgently needed further structural evaluation to gauge needed repairs, according to the report. 

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A by nonprofit watchdog group California Watch alleges a pattern of lax enforcement of public school construction rules by the state's Division of the State Architect. 

As a result, the report says, nearly 20,000 school projects statewide never received seismic safety certification, a violation of the 1933 Field Act. The state law carries felony criminal penalties for school administrators and board members who allow uncertified school buildings to be occupied. But the investigation found virtually no enforcement by the state.

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In addition, the investigation found there has been little follow up on the buildings identified in the AB 300 survey and that districts have been largely denied a piece of $200 million aimed at funding seismic retrofitting. 

The gymnasium, pool storage, restrooms and the auditorium at Redlands High are listed, as are several classrooms at Cope Middle School. Details of the projects at Smiley and Victoria were not immediately available.

It is unclear how serious the safety issues are, or even if a school has made repairs, because the DSA has not established a tracking system for these older schools, according to California Watch.

Officials at Redlands Unified School District said they are aware some of their schools are on the list and are looking into it, said Cameron Brown, who became the district's coordinator of facilities services a few weeks ago.

“I’m not certain what was identified,” he said, adding that the district would be looking into whether the follow-up inspections or any repairs were ever completed.

Then-Assemblywoman Ellen Corbett authored AB 300. It became law in 1999.

The law required the California Department of General Services, which oversees the state architect office, to survey K-12 school buildings constructed before the 1976 California Building Code. The purpose was to provide a “quick snapshot of the potential risk” the buildings could pose, said Eric Lamoureux, spokesman for the state's architects office.

Only buildings in use and occupied by students and teachers were included in the survey, state officials said.

In 2008, the DSA again notified schools on the list and asked them to update the state on the status of the AB 300 buildings. It was not mandatory they respond. Some districts responded, others did not, Lamoureux said.

“At the end of the day, the AB 300 report was a snapshot in time of buildings with a potential risk, but just that, a potential risk,” Lamoureux said, “We had no quantifiable evidence that these buildings would in fact fail. That’s really on the districts to determine that after hiring an engineer to come in and evaluate those buildings.”

An interactive map of all schools affected schools in the Redlands Unified School District is available.

This story was produced using data provided to Patch by California Watch, the state's largest investigative reporting team and part of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Read more about Patch's collaboration with California Watch. 


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