LAUSD'S PROP. BB IMPLEMENTATION NOT A BETRAYAL OF VOTERS.

Byline: Julie Korenstein

TRUE to form, the Daily News was quick to argue that the district has betrayed the expectations of voters in implementing Proposition BB (April 6 editorial, ``We're watching, LAUSD'').

Predisposed to believe that the Los Angeles Unified School District, along with most other public entities cannot be trusted to do right by voters, the newspaper's editorial resorted to misrepresentations about the district rather than hard facts. In order to disabuse you of your notions of how the district has handled the bond's first year and its workings with the citizens oversight committee, allow me to respond to the following statements:

Despite your belief that we have deceived voters by not spending bond money ``according to a strict set of contracts with each campus,'' every repair we've performed to date came from a school contract. The 117 completed roofing jobs at 107 schools were promised to schools in their contracts, and the 36 schools with completed air-conditioning projects were guaranteed the work in their written agreements.

If proof is what you require, just ask Grant High School about the 30 classrooms that were re-roofed because roofing was one of its contract's repair needs. Or speak to Sylmar High, Riverside Drive School or Dixie Canyon Elementary School, where all their classrooms were air-conditioned in accordance with their contracts. The contracts are ironclad: We will fulfill every single repair item in them and see to it that no school's contract is overlooked or left incomplete.

``The oversight committee . . . has been forced to fight the district's intransigence every step of the way.'' To the contrary, on scores of issues, the district and oversight committee have worked cooperatively with one another to bring long-awaited bond projects to our schoolchildren. A majority of the oversight committee members and the district, for example, have approved the use of $107 million in Proposition BB funds for class-size reduction efforts and funding land acquisition and construction for seven primary centers. We have given the committee status reports, financial summaries and information, all in the belief that the 11-member panel must be in full possession of BB-related material as soon as it becomes available.

Yes, there have been issues that the district and the oversight committee have not seen eye to eye on, but isn't that the way the voters wanted the process to work? A system of checks and balances is in place, and we certainly welcome the expertise that the committee has brought to implementing the bond effort.

At the same time, just as voters didn't want the oversight committee to be a rubber stamp for the district, I'm sure they didn't want the district to simply agree with everything the panel recommends. As the governing board for the LAUSD, we sometimes have no choice but to first evaluate policy changes in terms of their impact on the district's budget. This can occasionally slow the process and test the patience of the private sector; however, it's for a good reason: We are using the public's money and must therefore always move ahead in a deliberate, prudent manner.

Despite the fact that a year has gone by since Proposition BB passed, I'm still incredibly grateful to Angelenos for voting to change the condition of our schools. We understood, however, that those votes came with certain provisos, including vigilant oversight and speedy implementation of school contract repairs. I'm proud to say that the oversight committee and the district have delivered both.

In the first year alone we have simultaneously completed more than 800 repair projects and delivered 1,096 portable classrooms for class-size reduction purposes. Portable classrooms have enabled us to successfully cut class sizes in first, second and third grades, and we are now in the process of implementing kindergarten class-size reduction. That translates into thousands of children who are now in classrooms with only 20 students and one teacher. We should be applauded for this progress, especially when one considers how other large school districts, including Detroit's and New York's, had little or nothing to show for their bonds' first year.

Our decision in April 1997 to immediately begin the behind-the-scenes work, including drawing up designs and submitting them to the state, is paying off, as 108 air-conditioning projects are awarded or are under construction and 56 safety and technology packages have approval from Sacramento or are being bid on. More importantly, the construction management experts have been assigned a majority of the repair jobs and will be carrying them out with a sensitivity to the school and its instructional needs.

In the second year of the bond's implementation effort, schoolyards will be landscaped with greenery, air conditioning will be installed in 140 of the hottest schools by the fall, more portable buildings will be delivered to help lower class sizes, murals and color schemes will take the place of graffiti-prone stucco, and new lunch shelters will be added to many schools. If they haven't received it already, these projects and others will be subject to the oversight committee's review before they are given to the board for formal approval. That's what the voters were promised. And that's exactly what they'll continue to receive.