A head architect for the Santa Maria-Bonita School District (SMBSD) presented, building by building, a report confirming the safety of the district’s buildings at a Board of Education meeting in January.
The report was triggered, in great part, by a recent article published by investigative website CaliforniaWatch.org alleging there are “unresolved safety issues” at schools built by Turnkey Construction, including some in SMBSD.
Bill Judge, a principal architect for WWCOT, told the board the deviation notices from the Division of the State Architect (DSA) alluded to in the article are simply construction changes waiting for state approval.
One of the notices cited by CaliforniaWatch mentioned the use of welds instead of bolts in some school facilities.
“Does that mean the weld isn’t as safe as the bolt? It doesn’t,” Judge said. “The change has to be justified as safe [by the contractor and
approved by the DSA].”
He commended the district for being so proactive about ensuring the buildings are safe, specifically when officials received a letter in 2009 from a junior associate with structural engineering firm John A. Martin and Associates saying construction problems “may pose a potential life-safety risk to students and staff in or around these structures.”
“When this first came to light, the first thing that came from the district is, ‘Do we need to evacuate the buildings?’”
Judge said CaliforniaWatch failed to report a follow-up letter sent shortly after by John A. Martin Jr., which said, “Based on all of our work, we do not believe that the deficient steel moment frames pose an immediate life-safety risk to the students and other occupants of these buildings.”
The letter went on to say that if any additional problems should be uncovered, the firm would alert the district immediately.
Judge said he and district officials are working with DSA to make sure all of the district’s buildings are certified and that the deviations are approved as safe.
This article appears in Feb 9-16, 2012.
