Politics & Government

School Quake Safety Questioned

California Watch investigative reporting squad and Patch collaborate to review building safety standards at public schools. Numerous potential problems are uncovered.

How safe are Corona Del Mar schools in an earthquake? Patch.com partnered with California Watch, the state’s largest investigative reporting team, to find out.

A 19-month California Watch investigation, which was released Thursday, uncovered holes in the state's enforcement of seismic safety regulations for public schools. 

California began regulating school architecture for quake safety in 1933 with the Field Act, but data taken from the Division of the State Architect’s office shows 20,000 school projects statewide never got final safety certifications. In the crunch to get schools built within the last few decades, state architects have been lax on enforcement, California Watch reported. 

A separate inventory completed nine years ago found 7,500 seismically risky school buildings in the state. Yet California Watch says only two schools have been able to access a $200-million fund for upgrades.

Find out what's happening in Newport Beach-Corona Del Marwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Where do Corona Del Mar schools stand in all of this? The state grades school construction projects using a four-letter rating system. Letter 4 is the lowest rating; Letter 1 is the best.

Rest assured, they are generally in pretty good shape. Corona del Mar High, Harbor View Elementary and Lincoln Elementary landed on the list, however some of the projects have since been modernized and certified with Letter 1 safety ratings, according to documents from the Division of the State Architect. Corona del Mar Patch is continuing to work with the N-MUSD to receive updates on these projects.

Find out what's happening in Newport Beach-Corona Del Marwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 But judging a school’s structural safety using these ratings can be tricky. In recent years, according to California Watch, state officials upgraded hundreds of Letter 4 buildings to Letter 3 without visiting schools to verify that issues were fixed. 

 Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the Division of the State Architect, downplayed concerns about Letter 4 buildings reclassified to Letter 3, saying most simply involved missing paperwork. “We don’t believe there are any significant safety issues with any of the Letter 3 projects,” he told Patch on Wednesday.

Tim Marsh, administrative director for facilities support services at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, said he was unaware that Corona Del Mar schools were classified in these zones, but said the district was committed to ensuring student safety.

"The schools were built and renovated with approval from [the state], and they meet the applicable codes," Marsh said. "We will make certain that we add landslide preparation to the schools' disaster-preparedness plan."

Indeed, being near a fault, landslide or liquefaction zone doesn’t necessarily mean a school building would fall apart in a quake. Because local school district officials and builders can be criminally prosecuted if students or staff are injured by tremor damage at an uncertified campus, they hire their own inspectors and are generally careful not to open any building that isn’t deemed up to snuff, said Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the Division of the State’s Architect. 

If you would like to get involved in this story and find out who to contact with your questions, go here. The page includes tips on preparedness, a list of frequently asked questions and a parents' preparedness checklist.

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 with California Watch.


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