Proposition Bb

In your "Valley Perspective Interviews" featuring issues related to Proposition BB (March 30), I was mortified to read that a professor of economics at Cal State Northridge would decline to support such a crying need for the public schools. Reading that her children attend private schools, and considering that she works for a public university which trains many of the future teachers hired by the L.A. school district, this amounts to hypocrisy. If she really cared about this society, she would be in there at her local schools fighting for autonomy, helping to resolve the problems of her community and taking advantage of the choices that parents do have within the L.A. school community.

As a teacher in the L.A. Unified School District, I feel obligated to report to the public the results of our past bond measures, Proposition BB and Measure K. The estimated cost of needed projects at Caroldale Learning Community in Carson was $4,358,284. Projects completed as a result of BB, to date, $275,284. The amount allocated for Caroldale under Measure K is $2,258,494. The total amount spent on projects as a result of Measure K is zero. Proposition 55 and Measure R both passed.

The Los Angeles Board of Education has voted unanimously to place a $3.35-billion school construction bond measure on the November ballot (July 10). This is an approximate 50% increase over the amount of Proposition BB, which was passed in 1997, and the new bond purports to handle many of the same problems that we were told Proposition BB would solve. From recent reports I gather that the money from Proposition BB is gone, and yet the problems remain. Is a record school bond measure really the only solution?

The Los Angeles Board of Education has voted unanimously to place a $3.35-billion school construction bond measure on the November ballot (July 10). This is an approximate 50% increase over the amount of Proposition BB, which was passed in 1997, and the new bond purports to handle many of the same problems that we were told Proposition BB would solve. From recent reports I gather that the money from Proposition BB is gone, and yet the problems remain. Is a record school bond measure really the only solution?

The committee set up to oversee spending of the $2.4-billion Los Angeles Unified School District repair bond voted 9 to 0 Thursday to oppose the use of Proposition BB money for an $87-million downtown high school project. The recommendation, which committee members said they would reconsider if the state agrees to help pay for the Belmont Learning Center, was a third attempt to satisfy a Superior Court judge who blocked work on the project so the panel could review it.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has declined to file criminal charges against Los Angeles school officials over allegations that they used public funds to promote Proposition BB, the $2.4-billion school bond measure. However, in a letter to Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Granada Hills), who lodged the complaint last April, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti stopped short of exonerating school officials, who planned a campaign detailing the repair needs of schools.

The Los Angeles school board made a pact with the voters: Approve Proposition BB, the $2.4-billion school repair, construction and improvement bond, and a new citizen watchdog oversight committee would ensure that the bond proceeds were spent effectively, efficiently and exactly as the voters intended.

Los Angeles voters passed Proposition BB last Tuesday, which only goes to show that the voters are much smarter than elected and appointed officials think. This measure passed because voters were convinced that the money raised would actually get to the schools. Previous bond measures went down to defeat because there was suspicion that the money would end up in the bloated school administration and never reach the schools. Hopefully this will be a lesson to officials, but then that assumes the officials are capable of learning, and we all know what a danger one runs when assuming anything.

Please! It's hard enough when our city's elected officials attack Los Angeles public schools, but now a young writer who didn't even graduate from L.A. Unified is criticizing the district for its handling of repair funds ("School Repairs Are Too Little, Too Late," Sept. 13). Hasn't anyone stopped to ask what the impact of all these negative articles is on the students? . . . My classmates at Sylmar High School now have air-conditioning and a new gym floor, thanks to Proposition BB. At our school, no repair is too little or too late.

Re "State Youths Flunk Fitness Exam," Dec. 11: It's distressing but not surprising that less than 30% of tested kids in our schools were deemed to be physically fit. Where would the kids get the message that fitness is important? Certainly not from their overweight, unfit parents, teachers and other erstwhile role models. The lame excuse offered by a principal that the school needs a boom box [for aerobics] is telling. Has he never heard of relay races, keep-away or kickball? An in-school fitness program is, or should be, one of the least expensive items on the curriculum.

The Los Angeles school district's top investigator said Wednesday that the firms overseeing $2.4 billion in school construction and repairs authorized by Proposition BB have been charging management fees that average about 20%--well above industry standards. "Regardless of what measure you use, management fees being paid here in Los Angeles are higher than anywhere else in the country," said Inspector General Don Mullinax.

The inspector general of the Los Angeles Unified School District confirms that the district is paying too much for management of the $2.4-billion Proposition BB school construction and repair projects. The fees being charged by the project managers, working under 3D/I-O'Brien Kreitzberg, range from 18% to 20% of actual costs, three times the industry standard, according to Inspector General Don Mullinax. Interim LAUSD Supt.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, which has closed numerous schools and classrooms as the result of asbestos discoveries in the last five months, has adopted new safety guidelines for school repairs and maintenance. The reforms were implemented in the wake of the five-day closure of Chatsworth High School earlier this month, after district inspectors discovered asbestos had been released by work crews drilling holes in classroom walls for wiring.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has begun an investigation into whether a project management firm involved in its $2.4-billion school construction effort has illegally billed the district for employees working on other projects. Steve Soboroff, chairman of the Proposition BB oversight committee, called for the probe after being contacted Monday by an investor in the management firm.

Please! It's hard enough when our city's elected officials attack Los Angeles public schools, but now a young writer who didn't even graduate from L.A. Unified is criticizing the district for its handling of repair funds ("School Repairs Are Too Little, Too Late," Sept. 13). Hasn't anyone stopped to ask what the impact of all these negative articles is on the students? . . . My classmates at Sylmar High School now have air-conditioning and a new gym floor, thanks to Proposition BB. At our school, no repair is too little or too late.

In questioning what originally was planned as a $2-billion bond package for city capital improvements, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan suggested that any bond proposal should include a citizens oversight committee to assure voters that the money would be spent as planned. Riordan's model for his proposal is the citizen's oversight committee created by the Los Angeles Unified School District bond passed last year.

On the first anniversary of the largest school bond in the nation's history, a volunteer oversight committee Wednesday praised Los Angeles school officials for getting off to a fast start, but also criticized bureaucratic failures that hampered the work. In a "good news-bad news" assessment, the Proposition BB committee created by voters to watch over $2.4 billion in repairs and improvements offered no final grade, merely saying, "We are now looking for ways to do substantially better."