I attended the Parent Teacher Organization at Point Fermin Elementary School today and came away with some information that I feel needs to be pondered further, by all of us.
First I must repeat that I DO NOT wish to see the lunch shelter removed at anytime in the near or far future of the school.
I have posted things about the plight found at Point Fermin Elementary School and I strongly feel that the Facilities Division of the Los Angeles Unified School District started all the problems, continue to resist fixing the problems, and is pitting the students, teachers, parents, and others, against members of the community and keeping everyone misinformed and defiant.
On these issues, folks who want to see the new power grid start working at Point Fermin Elementary School have some very good reasons for having it start working.
On the other hand, LAUSD has acknowledged that is has broken rules, codes, and other things, yet it is holding all of us hostage, especially the students and faculty of the school.
One bright moment came during the meeting when the President of the PTO and the Principal of the school apologized to Mr. James Campeau for their incorrect statements and views that Mr. Campeau began the opposition to getting the new power working because of his views of the area.
Mr. Campeau stated factually that out of the front of his home he has a good clear view of the stucco walls of a condominium building and cannot even see the school unless he stands on his roof.
It is now strongly believed that LAUSD, and their Facilities Division came up with the misinformation about Mr. Campeau's view because he complained about the issues brought before him as a member of the Planning and Land Use Committee of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council.
It is true that "SOME" residents in the area complained about the new poles placed to supply power to the new power cabinet on Carolina. But residents also complained about the potential safety aspects of having a 4.8 kilo-volt set of power cables too close to the metal cover of the lunch shelter.
Mr. Campeau has been attempting to have LAUSD fix the problems they originally created when they first built the shelter on easement land along Carolina Street.
But Mr. Campeau started working on the issue years after the shelter was built and he and so many of us DO NOT WANT the shelter removed.
Mr. Campeau's observations and work towards finding solutions to the problems came about with the placement of new power poles, a new power cabinet, and wiring were done by DWP.
DWP worked on the project because LAUSD told them that it was correct to work on the poles, even though LAUSD knew that there were already easement issues on the site.
DWP correctly placed poles on the site according to LAUSD wishes which were wrong in the first place.
Everything DWP has done so far has been legally correct for the placement of poles on the easement and even placing the new cables where they placed them.
But DWP did not know that they should have not placed them where they did because LAUSD did not tell them that the shelter was incorrectly placed, back in 1999/2000.
Now some folks will state that the situation doesn't need correcting because the new power grid, cables, cabinet, and infrastructure will be used only for air conditioning and it is becoming cooler these days.
They are wrong! The school needs more power for several reasons.
The school is becoming a Marine Sciences Magnet and there are new power requirements for new technologies that are coming to that school.
There is one classroom that has only one working A.C. outlet.
One very important issue is that because of some new technology infrastructure equipment, two classrooms have now lost their radiators/heaters. The students and teachers in those classrooms will need the new power to have electrically-generated heaters.
The simplest "fix" for the problems facing Point Fermin Elementary School, right now, is to place the new power cables underground.
LAUSD doesn't want to pay for that. But they made the mistakes beginning in 1999 and still do not want to provide any real mitigation to solve the problems they created.
One great thing that came from the PTO meeting today is that I feel the parents and teachers who attended the meeting have a better understanding of how we all need to come together and work on how to fix the problems as soon as possible.
All the teachers, parents, and staff at Point Fermin Elementary School are stakeholders in the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council.
They are encouraged to bring their issues to Council Board meetings so their concerns can be heard and understood by the members of the Board.
The PTO can also work with Coastal Board members and Committee members to draft motions to be voted on that support their cause. I have the belief that their issues will be properly addressed and the outcome favorable to everyone.
It is time to stop pointing fingers at everybody else, other than Mr. Gamble and the Facilities Division of LAUSD. They are the 'bad guys' pitting us against each other so they won't have to deal with fixing the problems they created in the first place.
Until the issues are resolved to best protect the students, faculty, staff, and parents at Point Fermin Elementary School, only the Facilities Division must be known as the culprits.
They are holding our the school's community and the rest of the local area hostage and it appears they really don't care.
You can also read about the discussion concerning Point Fermin Elementary School on a blog more involved with education than this blog is.
That blog can be found by clicking on:
http://www.theunderdogforkids.blogspot.com/
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