LAUSD relies on thousands of portable classrooms. What does it take to replace them?

John F. Kennedy High School students will start school in 10 new classrooms and science labs when they return from spring break later this month.

Their new building is an example of the longevity of school bonds — with the project completed 23 years after approval of at least one bond used to help fund it.

Kennedy High opened in 1971, and many of the campus' original buildings remain, with the exception of the gymnasium and the administration building, which were rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The new building is part of a $274 million renovation that includes removing aging portable classrooms, a new track and retrofitting buildings to better withstand earthquakes.

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The project, first put forward for consideration in 2016, is funded by voter-approved bonds from 2002, 2008 and 2020.

 "The bond measure allows the district to take on the replacement and the construction of new facilities where otherwise we would only have funds to do very minimal repairs,” said Chief Facilities Executive Krisztina Tokes.

The renovation also includes the removal of 19 portable buildings, part of a district-wide goal to remove aging trailers from campuses. The district added most bungalows between the 1960s and early 2000s to rapidly expand capacity, but now many of them have outlived their use.

What bonds will do in the future

Akshita Islam is a junior in the school’s medical magnet program and hopes a few of her science classes will be in the new building next year.

“The most exciting part is just to have something modern in this campus,” she said. “As you can tell, we're at an outdated campus, so it's nice to have something new.”

John F. Kennedy High School renovations include flexible furniture.

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Mariana Dale

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LAist

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Flexible furniture allows for desks to be easily rearranged.

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Mariana Dale

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LAist

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Tokes said more than 5,000 portables remain on LAUSD campuses, down from a peak of 10,000 in 2003.

Voters approved a property tax increase in November to fund up to $9 billion in LAUSD school construction projects over the next several decades. The district said the majority of Measure US funding (nearly $5 billion) will go toward renovations like the one at Kennedy.

The district’s bond oversight committee reviews each project, and the majority of the board must vote to approve the projects before they can proceed. The committee's meetings are open to the public; it next meets May 1.