Will Your School Withstand an Earthquake?

A strong aftershock that hit Japan this morning was a somber reminder of the destruction that Mother Nature could have.

Plans of evacuation and whether our buildings are well equipped to withstand the "Big One" come to mind, but more importantly, will our schools stand firm long enough to evacuate our children?

A 19-month California Watch investigation released Thursday uncovered holes in the state's enforcement of seismic safety regulations for public schools.

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 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 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.

In Campbell, things look optimistic.

In Moreland School District

Moreland School District has no schools on the AB-300 list, nor does it have any schools with Letter 4 Field Act problems or near fault lines or liquefaction zones, which are areas that can turn soil into quicksand in a violent earthquake.

The AB-300 list was approved in 1999 by the state Legislature. It contains 7,537 buildings, approximately 14 percent of the total square footage in the state's public kindergarten-through-grade-12 schools that have been deemed to have "potentially dangerous hazards that require more detailed evaluation."

"We don't have any buildings on that list," said Dana Taylor, Moreland School District assistant superintendent. "Our oldest building was built in 1956, and most of the buildings on that list are concrete buildings. None of ours are like that."

In Campbell Union School District

In , no schools fall into that AB-300 list, but the district does have one school near a liquefaction zone and two schools near a fault line.

, at 401 W. Hamilton Ave., is within a quarter mile of a liquefaction zone. , at 850 Chapman Ave., and Village, at 825W. Parr Ave., are both within a quarter mile of a fault line.

"We believe that they are all safe," says Jim Crawford, Campbell Union School District deputy superintendent. "When we build a school building, schools are built at a higher code than other buildings are. They’re built stronger to withstand earthquakes."

When a school district begins the process of building a new school building, the structural engineer on site takes a soil sample to see what kind of dirt they will be building on, Crawford said.

"Depending on that, the structural engineer will build a foundation based on this," he said.

Rosemary Elementary and Village are both fairly new buildings, Crawford says, each about five years old.

"They've already been built to the highest, most recent standards," he said.

Capri is a combination of old and new.

"Half of the campus is new buildings and the other half is wood-framed," he said. "Wood-framed buildings have a good record of holding up in an earthquake."

The school district passed Measure G last June, a $150 million bond to repair and improve local elementary and middle schools in the district.

"As we go through our bond program, renovating those buildings, we have to take a look, 'Has the code changed and do we have to upgrade for safety purposes?'" Crawford said. "The codes from four years ago aren’t the same as the ones today. Whenever we have a new earthquake, the state revises it."

Along with the improvements like site work, walkways, handicapped accessibility and parking, seismic retrofitting where appropriate are also part of the process," Crawford said.

"We will be moving through the buildings as we go through the stages," he said.

In Campbell Union High School District

shows half of its six schools that are on the AB-300 list, three within a quarter mile of a liquefaction zone and two within a quarter mile of a fault line.

, and Branham all have one project on the AB-300 list. Westmont, and Boynton are all within a quarter mile of a liquefaction zone, and Del Mar and Prospect are within the same distance of a fault line.

The district was unable to comment, because it was still gathering information at the time this report was published.

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.