With only two TurnKey-constructed projects certified in the last two years and 11 more to go, the Santa Maria Bonita School District has a high wall to climb before it can be done dealing with structural issues in some of its schools.
The California Department of Education released a decision on May 30 that district spokesperson Maggie White said brings closure a little closer and backs up the district’s claims that the remaining uncertified TurnKey projects are nonetheless safe structures.
The decision was released in response to a complaint filed by district school board member Will Smith in August 2012. Smith’s complaint alleged that newly constructed TurnKey buildings, including gymnasiums and two-story classroom buildings, have structural flaws that render them unsafe.
Smith didn’t respond to the Sun’s inquiry about the decision.
The Department of Education released a statement regarding the decision on May 31 that said the complaint filed by Smith was general. His complaint didn’t point out specifics about what was structurally unsafe in any of the schools, but did point to 25 construction projects, 14 of which have been closed and certified by the state.
“After an eight-month investigation, the CDE found no facility conditions to exist that posed an emergency or urgent threat to the safety of pupils or staff,” the statement said. “CDE determined that 11 district projects had not yet received certification from the Division of State Architect (DSA). CDE recommended that the district work with DSA to obtain all of the required documentation that is necessary to obtain certification for these 11 projects.”
The statement went on to reiterate that none of those 11 projects were deemed unsafe by the department. Tina Jung, a Department of Education spokesperson, told the Sun she wouldn’t comment further on the decision.
Santa Maria-Bonita was forced to deal with the structural integrity of its half-constructed buildings when construction company TurnKey failed to meet its financial obligations to subcontractors. TurnKey began more than a dozen construction projects, worth approximately $62 million, with the district from 2000 to 2005. The company eventually filed for bankruptcy and left the district with a number of unfinished projects.
The school district was able to finish the projects through other construction companies, but the safety of the structures has been an issue for the district because of the lack of certification from the state architect.
While the California Department of Education’s decision did say that the buildings in question are safe, it recommended that the school district set a timeline for getting the buildings certified.
“The certification does represent a level of safety assurance that is required by law,” the department said in the decision.
District spokesperson White said certification is something Santa Maria-Bonita has been working to tie up since construction on the projects ended.
“We felt very pleased with the report,” White said. “It’s not a huge change because what the CDE said is what we’re already doing, which is working with the state architect.”
White explained that the school buildings waiting for the stamp of approval are almost identical to the two recently certified projects, so the district is confident they will be certified.
“We’ve always said we were in the process of working through it,” she said. “It’s going to take time, and the CDE report even says that. We are moving toward it.”
This article appears in Jun 6-13, 2013.