School Board President Praises Balfour Beatty Amidst School Construction Concerns
First Day of School at Anza Elementary
At the conclusion of a recent School Board meeting Board President Michael Wermers praised Balfour Beatty, “I want to thank Don Rondeau [Balfour Beatty Superintendent] for the work that was recently completed at Anza. It was a bit of a challenge, but I wanted to congratulate you … Balfour Beatty will make mistakes but they invariably hit homeruns, so thank you very much.”
Construction challenges created an uproar at Anza Elementary in recent weeks as children returned to school. Renovations at the school were expected to be completed over the summer. That did not happen. In a Facebook group dedicated to that school site many parents expressed their frustration with the construction delay. One parent wrote:
“Our children deserve better. I’m very disappointed by the state of the Anza campus as Balfour Beatty did not complete their work on time. Our kids will be starting Anza tomorrow having to use porta potties for the coming weeks, as the bathrooms are not ready (for grades 1-5). It is completely unacceptable that Balfour Beatty did not have an adequate crew to get the work done during the summer. The grass is nowhere near ready for play and the campus is a hazard waiting to happen with equipment, mounds of dirt/debris and who knows what else.”
Another parent commented:
Lights Left On Overnight at Anza
“Maybe they SHOULD close the campus for a month until all this is done! Although I’m sure that will not happen because of money loss. But maybe Balfour should pay for that! There are so many areas of concern, safety/health issues. The construction workers can’t be near the kids until school is out. They’ve roped off parts of the playground where the construction is happening. It’s so chaotic. I feel bad for our kids and teachers having to deal with this.”
Some complained about the job site itself with one person saying, “I picked up nails and screws on the playground today, I’m in construction and this is a [expletive] condition for a job site, especially one with kids all over the place now.”
Several also commented that it appeared not much work was happening over the summer as few workers were seen at the site. Oddly, however, despite the lack of workers lights at the school were often left on overnight and air conditioning units were left running even over hot weekends.
With bathrooms not completed, portable bathrooms with hand washing stations were brought in for student use. Complaints soon surfaced about the toilets backing up and the sinks not working as the portables only accommodated a certain amount of flushes per day. The portable bathrooms were removed after a week and a half of school and Anza is now making do by allowing the students to use the teacher bathrooms.
A representative from the architecture firm hired by the District spoke to the concerns at the District’s Quarterly Construction Update held last Monday:
Portable Bathrooms at Anza
“So yes, we had a fun summer … to your question Mr. Steffen about bathrooms. Anza has a couple of restrooms that are in the process of full modernization. We did do a limited scope during the [summer] and then are now coming back to replace the ceramic tile.”
The representative then acknowledged that replacing the ceramic tile was not part of the original plan, but no explanation was given for that omission.
A parent at Anza who corresponded with Balfour explained the omission to the original plan as follows:
Kindergarten Playground at Anza
“Related to the bathrooms, TUSD has been operating under the false assumption that the 3 Anza student bathrooms were upgraded in 2004 with the last Bond measure (hence they are just doing patchwork now) … the TUSD superintendents, Balfour and Mrs. Marks [the principal] toured the bathrooms to determine if they had or hadn’t been previously remodeled. Upon seeing them, all now agree that the bathrooms were not previously upgraded and should be now. Good news, bad news. Good news is that the three bathrooms will finally be renovated holistically rather than the current patching. Bad news is that it means construction on-site will take longer.”
Parents also discovered that only part of the school had updated lighting. It was the plan that all the lighting would be updated and it not clear why it was not done. Since the complaints surfaced, Balfour now plans to complete the lighting for the entire school.
No timeline was communicated at the Quarterly Construction Update as to when the construction as Anza would finally be completed.
School Board member Don Lee did ask at the meeting if the parents at Anza had calmed down. TUSD Superintendent Mannon responded by saying, “we held an open house there the other night and there wasn’t one question.”
There is something wrong with all the restrooms in Torrance schools. J.H. Hull has had more then 50% of their restrooms closed for 3 weeks now due 1 broken sink.
Richarson Middle School restrooms are not stock with the necessary items soap, paper towels and toilet paper, and one of the restrooms has standing water on the floor making it a safety issue as well as a health issue..
Torrance get it together we expect better and we will keep fighting until we get it..
Hull is basically a brand new school that was re-opened just a few years ago. Is there a sink shortage in the city? This is what happens when you let the SEIU and the TTA control the board of education. All the unions fight for is pay raises, pensions and other perks and for that the TTA doesn’t educate any more but just indoctrinates. Qualified people don’t run for the BOE because they know the unions control who gets on the board so it is obvious they have no chance to win. Then at the candidates forums we hear such stellar questions like 1. do you have kids in the district? 2. did you support the school bonds etc. Why don’t they ask 1. What do you think of the Common Core curriculum and would you keep it or get rid of it? 2. Do you support the school district siding with Balfour-Beatty in the lawsuit to recover $108 million of bond money that the district paid Balfour-Beatty using a sham no bid construction lease-leaseback agreement? I hope the reader realizes this law suit has been going on for more than 5 years and the BOE is using our education funds to fight the recovery of $108 million in our bond funds. They aren’t fighting for us but for their buddies at Belfour-Beatty. I hope Clint Paulson runs an article on this ongoing legal battle in the next 10 days so the voters know how their money is being waster by their elected officials. The mail in ballots are coming out the week of Oct. 8th. and we need to know the facts.
All these things can happen when NO competative construction bids are issued by the city for school construction. You the the registered voters are the ones that allow this to happen when voting in the ones responsible. When 10-20% of the registered voters vote in a city election, what can you expect?
Exactly, biggest scam they ever pulled on the voters. There is no TP or soap at any of the schools I visited. Keep voting the same people in and more bonds and expect a diifferent outcome. Wake up!!!
I would think you would tour the school at the start of the construction and see what needs to be replaced or upgraded. They didn’t even remember if the bathrooms had been upgraded in 2004. Why didn’t they as some of the office staff or teachers that were here in 2004 like Mrs. Gianachinni, Ms Lovell and others? A tour of the school some time before summer vacation would have given them an idea what work needed to be done. With 600-700 students they couldn’t figure out the porta potty situation? Wouldn’t re-doing the bathrooms be a priority and something you’d want o finish by mid August? Balfour Beatty had from about June 23rd. to Sept. 5th to get the work done. When I took my dog for a walk at Paradise Park and saw the shape Anza was in I wondered how they would be ready for the school to open in less than a week.For this “great” job BOE President praises Balfour Beatty. I guess we can see why the BOE never joined the law suit against Belfour Beatty that would have given the property tax payers a $108 million refund of the construction costs. Is our school board a PR firm for Balfour-Beatty or are they supposed to have fiduciary duty to the residents of of this city to make sure things get timely. Instead Wermers is leading the Belfour cheering section. I wonder if Ms. Raggins and Ms Deutch were the pom pom girls for the construction company.
of lets now forget the Personnel Commission Labor Choice… it never TTA or SEIU selected
more like the TV program All in the Family….Guess JR is back writing
Stop voting for bond measures. It’s simple.