School Seismic Safety Investigation Shines Light on West Hills High

A 19-month California Watch investigation, which was released Thursday, uncovered holes in the state's enforcement of seismic safety regulations for public schools, including at .

California began regulating school architecture for seismic safety in 1933 with the Field Act, but data taken from the Division of the State Architect’s office shows 20,000 school projects statewide never got final safety certifications. In the crunch to get schools built within the last few decades, state architects have been , California Watch reported. 

A separate inventory completed nine years ago found 7,500 seismically risky school buildings in the state. Yet, California Watch reports that only two schools have been able to access a $200 million fund for upgrades. 

The only school in Santee to show up on the radar of California Watch is West Hills High; all other schools in town are seismically up to par and certified. West Hills has one construction project which falls into the category of not originally getting final seismic safety certification, and perhaps never getting fully certified. The project is labeled "ALUMINUM BLEACHERS, WOODFRAMED CONCESSIONS/ RESTROOMS /SNACK BAR / SCORE BOOTH" on a Project Application Summary from the DSA website (see PDF in media box).

West Hills High appears on a Division of the State Architect (DSA) list as having an uncertified project on the campus which at one point had a "Letter 4" designation. A "Letter 4" project is considered among the most potentially at-risk projects.

The Application Summary reads: "Client's note: Closed without compliance," suggesting that the project has yet to be seismically certified.

But, according to the California Watch report, the DSA downgraded this project from a "Letter 4" to a "Letter 3" on Jan. 17, 2002. This indicates less risk, but whether the project has been seismically certified is still unclear. Santee Patch has reached out to the for clarification.

Judging a school’s structural safety using these ratings can be tricky. In recent years, according to California Watch, state officials upgraded hundreds of Letter 4 buildings to Letter 3 without visiting schools to verify that issues were fixed.

By no means does such a rating mean that buildings would fall apart in an earthquake. Local school district officials and builders can be criminally prosecuted if students or staff are injured by tremor damage at an uncertified campus, so normal safety measures and indipendent inspections are standard.

None of the schools in Santee are near any faults or other potential seismic or landslide problems, according to California Watch.

 This story was produced using data provided to Patch by California Watch, the state's largest investigative reporting team and part of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Read more about and join the ongoing discussion