District plans charter site conversion
Certification from state will aid compliance with act for quake damage protection
PALMDALE — Palmdale School District will spend $229,103 to obtain Division of the State Architect certification on the never-opened former The Guidance Charter School campus.
The contract with Los Angeles-based consultant TDM Architects Inc. seeks to convert the 100,000 square-foot campus to comply with the Field Act, a 1933 law aimed at protecting schoolchildren from earthquake damage.
The District paid $20.5 million for the campus at 3838 East Ave. R.
Guidance Charter School, a former 17-year charter school authorized by the District, lost its charter in January 2018 when Palmdale trustees denied the petition for renewal. Guidance Charter subsequently lost appeals to the Los Angeles County and state Boards of education.
Guidance Charter School officials were looking forward to moving into the new campus for the 2018 fall semester. The charter school financed construction of the $31.6 million campus with state-authorized bonds.
Charter schools can build campuses without oversight by Division of the State Architect. The District will need the Division of the State Architect to sign off on the campus before it can be used for public school students.
The District hired a consultant to conduct a site investigation of the campus to review its suitability as a campus.
A visual inspection of readily accessible spaces found that the facility was in very good condition with manageable deficiencies where the original design was completed, the report said.
Those deficiencies include non-functioning lights in some mechanical rooms, miscellaneous minor heating, ventilation and air conditioning issues, and missing gas shut-off valves in science rooms with a lack of stainless steel exhaust ducts at hoods.
The Board voted unanimously to approve the contract with TDM Architects at Tuesday’s meeting.