Schools

Are Local Schools Earthquake Safe?

California Watch launches a three-day series on the safety of the state's schools should a major earthquake strike.

If the big one hits the Bay Area, are schools in the safe?

That's one question that will likely be on the minds of parents throughout the district and the state of California now that a watchdog group called California Watch has published a list of potentially unsafe school buildings and projects.

In Dublin most of the buildings are in good shape, a district official said.

Find out what's happening in Dublinwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Our buildings are expected to perform well during an earthquake and have performed well in previous earthquakes. We have had no identified structural damage to our buildings in previous earthquakes," said Kim McNeely, Facilities Director at DUSD.

California began regulating school architecture for seismic safety in 1933 with the Field Act, but data from the Division of the State Architect show that 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

Find out what's happening in Dublinwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A separate inventory completed in 2002, required by AB 300, found 7,500 seismically risky school buildings in the state. Yet, California Watch reports, restrictive rules have prevented schools from accessing a special $200 million fund for seismic repairs. Only two schools have been able to access the fund and in many cases the California Watch found, the state and school districts never followed up to make sure fixes were finished.

One school in Dublin is on the AB 300  list. Dublin Patch has requested additional information from the District and is awaiting information as to when any retrofitting may have occurred.

None of the city's schools were among the 20,000 schools missing Field Act certification.

However, virtually every school in the district is listed as either being within a quarter-mile of an earthquake fault or located in a liquefaction zone. 

A liquefaction zone is where sandy soil can be jolted into a liquid form by a strong earthquake. In extreme cases, buildings in those zones can sink into the ground or be carried off by the liquified soil.

Dublin officials said they do know that one building needs to be improved.

"The round classroom building at was identified as a priority for replacement or retrofit with regard to seismic safety," said McNeely. 

She added that the building has been approved for demolition and replacement or upgrading of a portion of the building. Design is already underway for the work.

"The construction is planned for summer 2012 once we receive Division of the State Architect approval," McNeely added.

The California Watch project website offers numerous links so you can look at the data and peruse interactive maps that show details such as school proximity to fault lines and liquification zones.

For answers to your questions, quake preparedness tips and more, click here. For how you can get involved, click . 

For a timeline of the California Watch project, click here. You can also see an interactive map of the history of California earthquakes since 1861,  including their magnitudes, locations and the damage caused.

Dublin Patch has requested additional information from the school district  and will be following up on this story at a local and state level.

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 .


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