DAMAGED SCHOOLS MAKE DO : QUAKE REPAIRS SLOW IN COMING.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

For nearly three years, teacher Laraine Reisner has taught her pupils in cramped, dingy quarters with no plumbing or running water.

Reisner's students and several other classes at Encino Elementary School were forced to move into dark and crowded portable bungalows after the January 1994 Northridge Earthquake damaged a two-story building at the school.

``We were told it was for six weeks - but I'm still here,'' said Reisner, a fourth-grade teacher. ``I think somebody forgot about us.''

But Reisner is not alone. Nearly a quarter of Los Angeles public schools damaged in the 1994 temblor still have not been repaired - most are San Fernando Valley schools in need of major work.

At some campuses, construction has not even started. And some schools, such as Encino, don't even have a firm date set on when rebuilding will start.

``We've had postponement after postponement,'' said John Hall, Encino's principal. ``These kids are in something like cardboard boxes, and we're still in a bureaucratic maze.''

Julie Crum, director of the Los Angeles Unified School District's design and inspection branch, said she has sympathy for schools like Encino. Still, she believes that the district has done its best to push through repairs.

Most delays have been caused by funding fights between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the LAUSD, Crum said.

``This hasn't been in our hands; the problems have been with FEMA,'' Crum said.

Leland Wilson, FEMA coordinator for the Northridge Earthquake, said repairs are coming along slowly because of architectural and cost evaluations.

``This type of thing doesn't move quickly, but things are quietly going on, not visible, behind the scenes at the architectural offices,'' Wilson said.

Of the 103 projects still remaining at various schools, nearly a quarter will be completed in January, and more than half will be finished in the summer, district officials said.

No completion date has been set for 13 projects, but the district said construction should start by summer.

One reason for the long delays is FEMA's argument that it should only have to pay to repair schools to their pre-earthquake condition. The district, on the other hand, maintains that FEMA should pay to bring the damaged buildings up to current state building codes - which would cost substantially more, Crum said.

Margaret Scholl, director of the LAUSD's earthquake recovery program, said that FEMA and the school district looked at each project on a case-by-case basis, and in some cases, the federal agency did agree to pay for upgrades.

The district and FEMA are continuing to negotiate whether FEMA should pay not only to repair but to structurally fortify schools.

Holmes Middle School in Northridge is one of four remaining projects that have been put on hold until FEMA decides whether it will pay to additionally strengthen the buildings, Crum said.

But as far as Principal Ron Twombly is concerned, they can take their time. Some teachers, he said, are reluctant to leave their air-conditioned portables.

``The new building won't have it,'' he said.

Still, Scholl said even with delays in some projects, the district has done much better in recovering from the disaster than other communities.

It took the city of Los Angeles 15 years to resolve all of its funding issues with FEMA after the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake, Scholl said.

``Compare that to what we've done, we're doing very well,'' she said.

Almost every school in the LAUSD was socked by the Northridge Earthquake - a total of 5,333 buildings needed repairs. Scholl estimates total damages at nearly $140 million.

``This was a massive undertaking,'' Scholl said.

But that's little consolation for those still waiting for their campus repairs.

In Laurel Davidson's third-grade class at Encino, there's almost no room to contain her 28 squirming students. The noise level makes conversation nearly impossible, she said.

``It's not that they're being overly loud, it's just that there's no room,'' Davidson said.

No room for learning centers. No room to pull out a misbehaving student for a timeout.

The small plastic window is scratched, and the ventilation is poor. A noisy fan blasts cold air in the front of the room, but leaves students sweltering in the back.

Because of the quake damage, the school's 700 students are forced to share four bathrooms.

At a time when the district has recognized the importance of reducing class size to enhance learning, teachers and parents at Encino worry about the poor classroom conditions.

``I'm concerned my son isn't getting the education he should be getting,'' said Lisa Niesley, whose son is enrolled in Reisner's class.

District officials are not sure when Encino's two-story classroom building will be repaired, but said that construction should start by summer.

``The freeway was open in a matter of minutes after the earthquake, the Northridge mall after 18 months,'' said Hall, Encino's principal. ``What's it going to take to get rid of this red tape?''

At San Fernando High School, where 45 percent of buildings sustained quake damage, large wooden boards cover gaping holes in science rooms. With its auditorium knocked out of commission, dance, music and drama programs were canceled.

``Students and parents keep coming to us and asking, when is the school going to be fixed?'' said Barbara Garry, assistant principal. ``Then we'd call the district and make inquiries and they wouldn't know. For a long time we didn't hear anything.''

Today, however, a contractor will walk through the campus to survey the damage. District officials believe repairs there will be finished by next summer.

``We're very happy, it will be great to have everything back,'' Garry said. ``We just don't understand why it took so long.''

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Photo

PHOTO Hanns Botz has been conducting his third-grade classin a cramped bungalow at Encino Elementary School since the Northridge Quake.

Philip John McCarten/Daily News