First in a series. 

Almost 14 months have passed since Culver City parents eagerly approved a $107M facilities improvement bond, and Supt. Dave LaRose checks in today with an update.

In some detail, he explained why neither Culver City nor Rome was built in a day, and the complex reasons that the originally planned summertime projects are not on schedule.

Question: With classes scheduled to resume in 25 days, what has been going on during the summer?

“We have identified what we are now calling Phase One projects,” Mr. LaRose said. “Throughout the course of last year, implementing our process and our model, we knew what we had to focus on for this year were those projects that were of a scope that we would have the capacity to address, just in terms of the amount of time that did not need architectural work, those types of projects that wouldn’t have to go through the (state Dept. of Architecture) simply because of the amount of time.

“So,” said the superintendent, “we identified a number of projects and priorities. We have been working with our program manager and our internal team to work with our construction management firm to identify the scope and the schedule.

“Some of the challenges – or delays – have been tied to our amount of time to be clear on the scope of the projects, the projects that we can address, the order of the projects, and then trying to identify projects that would not disrupt teaching and learning, wouldn’t displace students.

“That may be an issue in the long term, based on some of the work we may need to do,” said Mr. LaRose, starting his fourth year as super of the School District.

(To be continued)