Are Mission Viejo Schools Earthquake-Ready?

How will Mission Viejo's public schools handle an earthquake?

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

California began regulating school architecture for quake 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 says only two schools have been able to access a $200-million fund for upgrades.

In collaboration with California Watch, Patch has been digging through a maze of documents and interviewing officials to gauge the safety of Mission Viejo schools.

According to state data, five schools in the remain on a state list of schools that need further evaluation and may be at risk of earthquake damage.

The schools on the list are , , , and .

Each of the district's new buildings and renovations is reviewed by professional structural engineers, according to a statement from the district's director of business services, Jeff Starr.

The district also said the state does not require a "seismic specific survey" to come into compliance for state certification.

Furthermore, the district's Maintenance and Operations Department has not addressed seismic upgrades in the past, the statement says.

In 1999, the California Legislature passed a law that required the state Department of General Services to conduct a “collapse risk” inventory of the state’s K-12 school buildings.

It's unclear what being on the list actually means, though. Repairs could have occurred, the building could have been demolished, the school may have been renamed. The available data doesn't make such changes clear.

According to Starr's statement, Mission Viejo's schools have "been reviewed and have received certification from (the Division of the State Architect)."

Yet at least one project, the relocation of two classrooms at Mission Viejo High School, was never signed off to the satisfaction of the DSA. State records show the file was closed without certification.

Tammy Blakely, assistant to the superintendent, was unavailable this week to answer questions about that project.

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 with California Watch.