It was supposed to be temporary -- the long white trailer on the school blacktop, sporting a lopsided California license plate and wired to a propane tank.
But a year later, the trailer's eight wheels haven't budged from McNair Elementary School in Compton. Inside, three kitchen workers still wash, slice and simmer food for the school's 540 students. The school's kitchen, a few steps from the makeshift one, sits in disrepair.
McNair's $10,000-a-month trailer-turned-kitchen is among the most dramatic examples of construction delays that have vexed the Compton Unified School District since it launched an ambitious three-phase plan in 2002 to modernize 28 of its aging campuses and build two more.
The district began with $80 million in funding from a successful bond measure. Today, not even through its first phase, only three of the 28 projects are complete, and the district may have to borrow $20 million to $30 million to finish the others. The superintendent has suspended construction while the district figures out how to handle the funding shortfall.
Some parents and school board members are livid over the district's management of the project. "It's just unacceptable," said Satra Zurita, who was elected a year ago to the school board.
Officials say the rising cost of construction, state money that never came through and numerous change-order requests caused funds to be used up faster than expected. Despite delays, the district has renovated about 1,500 classrooms, said Alvin Jenkins, director of facilities for Compton Unified.
But officials concede that the district probably tried to tackle too much at once without monitoring progress on each campus. "The problem with this district," Compton Supt. Jesse Gonzales said, "is it went for quantity over quality."
Two independent audits criticized aspects of the district's handling of its finances and cited incomplete and subpar construction work. A November audit by the Los Angeles-based Del Terra Group found that renovations at many schools resulted in, among other things, poorly positioned thermostats, water pooling in light fixtures, disconnected fire alarm systems and rooftop air-conditioning units that were inadequately secured against earthquakes.
Officials say the audit was conducted before the contractors could complete their work. But they don't dispute its findings.
