Investigative Report: How Earthquake Safe Are Carlsbad Schools?

A 19-month California Watch investigation, which was released Thursday, uncovered holes in the state's enforcement of seismic safety regulations for public schools. All of the schools in Carlsbad were found to meet earthquake standards, but a locker room at Valley Middle School is considered “potentially” at risk.

California began regulating school architecture for seismic safety in 1933 with the Field Act, but data taken from the Division of the State Architect’s office (DSA) show 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 reported. 

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.

Valley Middle School is on the state’s radar because it is an considered an Assembly Bill 300 school—one that is potentially at risk during an earthquake—because it has , which doesn’t meet the minimum requirements of the 1976 Uniform Building Code.

 Superintendent John Roach is aware that the locker room at Valley Middle School is a concrete tilt-up and therefore on the AB 300 list.

“It’s not a building I’d send kids into during an earthquake, but this doesn’t mean it will fall over or the state wouldn’t allow us to use it daily. The state is not requiring us to change it,” Roach explains.

While these are buildings are a potential risk, there is no quantifiable data that they would actually fail in an earthquake.

Gretchen Zeagler, a public information officer
 with the DSA, agrees.

 “A concrete tilt-up building is not unsafe, but we request (not mandate) that schools get these type of buildings seismically evaluated. Either CUSD hasn’t sent in the evaluation or they haven’t done one; therefore, they are still on the list,” she said.

Carlsbad Patch informed Roach that the state doesn’t have documentation of seismic evaluation on the locker room and that’s why Valley Middle School remains a school designated as potentially vulnerable during an earthquake. Roach said he is taking action.

“We will get it evaluated if it hasn’t been already or submit the report if it has,” he said.

California Watch reported that La Costa Meadows Elementary is a Letter 4 school—which means it has a health or safety issue and doesn’t meet the latest earthquake standards—although Zeagler said the school has actually been revised to a safer Letter 3. According to data from the DSA, the school made alterations to all of the fire alarms. In March 2010 the file was “closed without certification.”

Zeagler added, “A Letter 3 school is not of major concern, although [La Costa Meadows] is missing three documents that should have been turned in to the state.”

Also, it’s important to keep in mind that Carlsbad is not near any major fault lines.

This story was produced using data provided to Patch by California Watch, the state's largest investigative reporting team and part of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Read more about Patch's Partnership with California Watch.