GUHSD Says West Hills High Seismic Concerns Unfounded

Two weeks ago, partnered with California Watch in for public schools. Now, new details have emerged to clarify Santee's situation, explaining why West Hills High showed up on a report of seismic safety concerns among hundreds of schools across the state.

The only school in Santee to show up on the radar of California Watch was West Hills High; all other schools in town are seismically up to par and certified. West Hills has one construction project which seems to falls into the category of not originally getting final seismic safety certification, and still being in a gray area. The project is labeled "ALUMINUM BLEACHERS, WOODFRAMED CONCESSIONS/ RESTROOMS /SNACK BAR / SCORE BOOTH" on a Project Application Summary from the Division of the State Architect (DSA) website.

It was reported that appears on a DSA list as having an uncertified project on the campus which at one point had a "Letter 4" designation. A "Letter 4" project is considered among the most potentially at-risk projects, and according to the (GUHSD), it means the project has not been completed.

After looking into the matter, Bob Kiesling, GUHSD director of facilities, said that the project had been revised to a "Letter 3" designation, which is not related to seismic issues. He explained that the DSA requires a layout of the project to be submitted before it is constructed and the DSA doesn't give final certification until all of the project is completed. The restroom portion of the project was not completed until recently, and once paperwork has been processed, the project should be finally certified.

Kiesling said that there is no reason to believe that there is any safety risk, seismic or otherwise, related to the bleachers and concession stand project.

He added that the DSA decided on its own to change the project from a "Letter 4" to "Letter 3" for reasons unknown to the district.

Judging a school’s structural safety using these ratings can be tricky. In recent years, according to California Watch, state officials revised hundreds of Letter 4 buildings to Letter 3 without visiting schools to verify that issues were fixed.

None of the schools in Santee are near any faults or other potential seismic or landslide problems, according to California Watch.