UPDATED: SMUSD Schools Still Show Possible Earthquake Safety Issues

Update at 7:43 p.m.:

San Marino Patch met with Superintendent Gary Woods, Assistant Superintendent Julie Boucher and Carmichael-Kemp Architects principal architect Tamara Schaeffer Monday afternoon to discuss the current safety status of certain school building projects.

The district and Schaeffer provided and reviewed numerous documents regarding the uncertified projects in question and those on the AB 300 list, a Department of State Architects survey of seismic safety in K-12 schools.

Current DSA documents show that SMUSD still needs to provide certain documents about the safety of some of their school building projects. SMUSD remains confident that all their schools are safe and said it is just a matter of providing documentation to DSA.

The DSA site states that "inclusion of a building on the (AB 300) inventory does not, in itself, say anything about the safety of the building. Only a detailed evaluation by a structural engineer can determine whether any building will be expected to be safe, or if a retrofit will be needed."

Earlier on Monday, San Marino Patch reported that Department of State Architect documents dated March 30 2011 show no upgrades have been made to SMUSD projects on the AB 300 list, including those classified as Category 2, defined by DSA as "building types not expected to perform as well as Category 1 in an earthquake, and require detailed seismic evaluation to determine if they can achieve life-safety performance."

The SMUSD and Schaeffer said Monday afternoon that these evaluations have not been performed since the school district does not have the funds to do so and SMUSD Category 2 school building projects are not considered the most vulnerable in the state.

Office of Public School Construction documents show that only school buildings that meet certain criteria to classify them as the "Most Vulnerable Category 2 Buildings" qualify for state Seismic Mitigation Program funding. No SMUSD school building projects are considered the most vulnerable and therefore do not qualify for this funding.

San Marino Patch is further reviewing the documents provided Monday afternoon and will have another update this week. 

Posted at 2:00 p.m.:

Over two weeks after San Marino Patch ran a story about seismic safety concerns in San Marino schools, the San Marino Unified School District and Department of State Architects are still working to obtain documents that show the current safety status of school building projects in question.

When originally contacted on March 30, the District said no seismic safety issues existed. When contacting the district Tuesday, SMUSD Superintendent Gary Woods said the district is confident that SMUSD school buildings are “very solid”.

One of the most pressing issues is a project closed without certification according to a DSA document dated Feb 2010.

DSA tracker shows one project closed without certification and a Letter 4 status—the worst evaluation possible, meaning unresolved seismic safety issues exist—and one closed without certification and a Letter 3, which could mean the district still needs to submit certain documents to DSA to show necessary changes have been made.

“It isn’t necessarily a bad thing if there wasn’t a certification,” said Woods. “It could be a technicality. It could be a document that was completed but not signed by the right person. There are so many variables as to why they’re not certified. You have to know the whole story.”

Woods said he does not know what each project flaw may be unless he digs into it further, but said he also wants to get to the bottom of it and that the SMUSD has requested documents from DSA. San Marino Patch has also requested documents from DSA.

SMUSD sent San Marino Patch 64 pages of documents Tuesday. Only one certification letter in those documents pertained to a building project Patch inquired about. Documentation was not provided for the three projects that are currently uncertified according to the most current DSA data.

The relevant certification letter SMUSD sent reiterated what Patch already knew and previously presented to the district—that a particular project (once uncertified) was now certified. Patch is still waiting for documentation from the district to show exactly what alterations were made to change the status of that building and other buildings that are now certified.

The SMUSD also sent DSA documents dated March 30, 2011 that show the most current information DSA has for projects on the AB 300 list, a list kept by the state Department of General Services, which was required to conduct a collapse risk inventory of the state’s K-12 buildings under Assembly Bill 300, passed in 1999.

Of the 11 AB 300 building projects in question, DSA documents show 10 projects have not been upgraded since they appeared on the AB 300 list. The remaining project was shown to have two parts—one of which was not built and the other is either not in use or made of wood so it would be exempt.

Nine of the 10 projects without DSA documentation to show upgrades had building types requiring detailed seismic evaluation while only one project had all its building types expected to perform well in future earthquakes.

Woods arranged a meeting between himself, Assistant Superintendent Julie Boucher, the district architect and San Marino Patch Monday afternoon to further discuss the current status of the school building projects in question.

San Marino Patch will update this story as more details and documents become available.