Seismic Safety—Are Ramona Schools Safe if a Major Earthquake Strikes?

Ramona is not known to be in an area of seismic hazards, faults or liquefaction zones. However, in the wake of major earthquake damage in Japan and New Zealand, the question could be posed, “What might happen at my child’s school tomorrow if a major earthquake were to strike?”

California Watch, an investigative reporting group, spent 19 months researching thousands of school projects and inspection records from throughout the state to help communities answer that question.

The group released a report Thursday that uncovered holes in the state’s enforcement of seismic safety regulations for public schools.

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 lax on enforcement, California Watch reports.

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.

In addition, California Watch reports that the State Architect's Office became too close to the industry it regulated, and that the state Geological Survey redrew its maps amid pressure from property owners and that this sometimes meant schools were in a hazard area one day and out of it the next day. The report, based on interviews as well as data research, also notes incompetence among inspecting engineers and architects.

Ramona's 11 public schools were built between 1944 and 2005, according to information provided by .

At least two of those schools are currently listed as having possible problems requiring follow up, according to California Watch. However, this could mean that remodeling has been done, but various entities haven't finalized the paperwork, said David Ostermann, assistant superintendent of administrative services at Ramona's school district.

California Watch reports that the paper trail regarding oversight of school safety has become chaotic and overwhelmingly bureaucratic. 

at one time received the most serious earthquake-risk status that is given to a project by the state. It’s called Letter 4 status under The Field Act and it’s presented by the Division of the State Architect, which oversees school design and construction. Schools must be designed to current code and signed off by state-licensed architects or structural engineers.

A Letter 4 project is not certified and is considered most at risk. However, the listings for Ramona Elementary could refer to updates of the fire alarm system, bathroom remodeling and cosmetic upgrades such as painting that were performed in recent years but which may not have been signed off at the time, Ostermann stated. In March 2010, the school was downgraded to a Letter 3 status, indicating less risk. 

The Division of the State Architect is under the Department of General Services (DGS).

A DGS listing shows a project involving construction of buildings at Ramona Elementary was closed out in January 2008 with a Letter 3 status without certification.

Another project at the school, involving construction of a “toilet building” and replacement of “A/C units” was closed out in 2007 with Letter 3 status, also without certification.

A project called “Hanson Lane Modernization,” involving toilet and library upgrades, was listed as closed in January 2008 with a Letter 3 status by the DGS, which means it was not certified.

A campus construction project listed as “New Elem. School #7/ Ramona Usd.” was reported to have been closed out by the DGS in 2007 without certification.

Ostermann was out of town at a conference this week and was unable to access necessary information prior to publication of this story but in a telephone interview with Ramona Patch he offered to do some research and respond further about local schools.

has two projects that appear on the decade-old Assembly Bill 300 list. AB 300 required the DGS to conduct an inventory of public school buildings in which kindergarten through grade 12 programs are offered if the buildings were of concrete tilt-up construction and nonwood-frame walls and were built before the more stringent 1976 Uniform Building Code went into effect. Schools on this list were considered potentially at risk in an earthquake.

Ostermann was uncertain why Ramona High School would be on the AB300 list but he offered to find out and respond. He said that, like Ramona Elementary, the high school has undergone bathroom and fire alarm upgrades, and it could simply be a matter of lack of final signatures again.

“I met with all the various contacts regarding those schools about a week and a half ago,” he said. “I'm always meeting with them regularly about issues like this. Sometimes it is just difficult to get everyone's heads together to get things like this signed off.”

Ostermann noted that safety is always given high priority.

“When you want to do something in a building, the first thing the DSA [Division of the State Architect] office does is check to see if you’re compliant for safety,” Ostermann said.

The superintendent of , Robert Graeff, said that all Ramona schools were built to the state requirements in place at the time of construction. 

“Each school met all the earthquake codes at the time,” he said. “Over the years, many building codes have been upgraded throughout the state—but public schools are not required to retrofit their buildings in order to continue meeting each change in the various safety codes. Because of the high standards we have always used in school construction in Ramona, parents should not be concerned about the safety of our schools during most moderate earthquakes.”

The Field Act was enacted in 1933 following a 6.3 magnitude quake in Long Beach that destroyed or caused major damage to 230 school buildings. Fortunately, the temblor struck at a time when schools weren’t open, so no one was injured.

The importance of the Field Act is not just to increase the safety of children and school staff during regular hours but also to offer some assurance that people will not be at major risk during use of the schools on other occasions. Schools are sometimes used by communities as shelter-in-place facilities during disasters, for example, as noted in a 2007 report by the California Seismic Safety Commission.

The same report notes that, since 1940, no children have been killed or injured during quakes that have affected schools compliant with the Field Act, and none of these compliant buildings has partially or completely collapsed, although commercial buildings near these schools have been damaged.

Wood-frame buildings were not surveyed under the AB300 mandate, according to the Division of the State Architect, because those types of buildings are expected to hold their integrity during earthquakes.

This article was produced in part by using data provided to Patch by California Watch, the state's largest investigative reporting team and part of the Center for Investigative Reporting.