Plan Would Send Students to Class In Empty Offices.

Tens of thousands of school kids traipsing through the corridors of Los Angeles office buildings every day. Classes held in spaces designed to be corporate offices, possibly even on upper floors of skyscrapers.

That's the latest vision being pursued by Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer, in his desperate quest for places to house L.A.'s swelling K-12 ranks.

The former Colorado governor and national Democratic Party chairman says he hopes to buy or lease enough unused commercial space to accommodate as many as 30,000 new classroom seats over the next two years.

"Look, we're short anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000 seats," Romer said. "We have plans to build classrooms that can house up to 65,000 students. But that still leaves us 85,000 seats to 135,000 seats short. That's why I'm putting this idea on the table."

The district is already negotiating a deal with the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power for that agency's underutilized Anthony office facility in Sun Valley, which is up for sale. Romer said he has been in discussions with DWP chief David Freeman about buying the facility and leasing two-thirds of the space back to the DWP. The rest, Romer said, would be used for classroom space that could house up to 1,000 students.

"If we can do this with the DWP, what about port office facilities, or airport office facilities?" Romer said. "And that's just the public sector. What about the private sector? What if we found 30 corporations each willing to lease space to house 1,000 students? That would help us quite a bit."

Romer was quick to point out that the DWP site is the only facility currently under negotiation.

There are several obstacles to this strategy, not the least of which is a state law that forbids state education dollars from going to corporations.

Despite that, at a Nov. 1 meeting of business and community leaders, Romer approached L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce President Ezunial "Eze" Burts about trying to identify companies with extra space on hand.

"The shortage of classroom space is so severe that we recognize that every little bit helps," Burts said. "That's why we are going to our member companies and trying to identify possible space they might have that we can then feed to the school district for consideration."

Yet even Burts acknowledged the difficulties of leasing or subleasing space from corporations.

"It's probably quite easy to identify our member companies with square footage available," Burts said. "But it has to be space that is suitable for classrooms."

Many older buildings, Burts and Romer said, would probably have to be brought up to current state code for school facilities. And, of course, leasing office or light industrial space would mean that students would not have direct access to playgrounds or athletic facilities. Romer said that's why he is only looking at putting high school students at these sites.

It would be difficult to gain an exemption to the state law barring use of education funds to pay corporations because many legislators from other districts would object to special exemptions being granted to the LAUSD.

Though parents may be dismayed at the thought of their children attending school in unconventional places, Romer's proposal is not unique.

Pomona Unified School District has bought space at the Plaza at Indian Hill retail center to house students.

No long-term fix

Burts said that even if enough commercial space could be secured, it would only make a dent in the problem.

"This is not a solution in and of itself to the classroom shortage," Burts said.

Others agreed.

"Certainly, there is little prospect of any new schools coming on line in the next 18 months and this leasing of space would help in that regard," said David Abel, a planning expert who heads an advocacy group called Better Schools, Better Neighborhoods. "But I'm concerned that this focus on leasing out space might be looked at as a substitute for building new schools."

"There was and is a continuing short-term outlook at the district," Abel continued. "This leasing out of space can only he used as a short-term solution while the district looks for suitable land to build new schools. If they use this as an excuse to lessen their focus on building new schools, it could prove to be detrimental in the long run."

Teachers' backing

A spokesman for the United Teacher of Los Angeles, the LAUSD teachers' union, said overcrowding is a worse barrier to learning than the likely inconveniences of holding class in former offices or retail stores, he said.

"It would be preferable to the overcrowding that we have," said Steve Blazak, director of communications for the union. "That's a tremendous problem that we have. That's why the superintendent is pursuing one of the few options left to us."

Blazak said teachers' first concerns are student safety, both in terms of the seismic integrity of the buildings (public schools are built to the toughest construction standards in the state), and in terms of whether the converted facilities are near industrial properties that might have a toxic history.

"What we would need are clean, safe facilities, because we need to have a proper learning environment," Blazak said.

Blazak said a concern likely to be raised by parents would probably be the issue of how students would get to class and whether students who walk to school would go through areas with lots of car traffic or railroad tracks.

Despite the plan to scout existing corporate sites, Romer said he has no plans to ease up on the search for sites to build new schools.

"That remains our top priority," he said.