With declining enrollment, L.A. Unified no longer needs to build new campuses. The district is, however, going to continue replacing or updating aging buildings.
L.A. school officials said in a staff report that the district’s needs “are great — more than 60% of school buildings are over 50 years old and desperately in need of upgrades, which means most … students are attending school in deteriorating and aging facilities that do not meet today’s standards for learning and safety.”
The district does have a budget for maintenance, but major repairs or upgrades — such as replacing a roof, updating a WiFi network, replacing an asphalt playground with grass and trees or installing air conditioning in a cafeteria kitchen — are typically paid for out of bonds.
L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho and Alina Palos, 6, try meals prepared in the new kitchen at Belvedere Middle School in East L.A. just before the start of this school year — an example of upgrades made with previous bonds.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Projections call for about $5 billion for “major modernizations, upgrades and reconfigurations to school campuses.”
Other funding areas include: $75 million for electric buses, $461 million for cafeteria upgrades, $258 million to make spaces accessible for those with disabilities and $70.5 million for security cameras.
About $1.25 billion is to go toward school greening projects. These could include planting trees, removing asphalt from playgrounds, installing outdoor classrooms and erecting shade structures.
This $9-billion bond would be the district’s largest in total dollars, but not in spending value when adjusted for inflation and compared with a $7-billion bond in passed in 2008.
But it’s a lot of money — approaching the size of the $10-billion state education bond that will appear on ballots across California. The state bond includes $1.5 billion for community colleges, which would leave $8.5 billion for all K-12 schools statewide, including those in L.A. Unified — as the district vies separately for its own $9-billion bond.