RFK is LAUSD’s most costly campus – and it needs more cash
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/09/2010 09:32:39 PM PDT
Already ballooning to $572 million, Los Angeles Unified’s most expensive school – and possibly the nation's – looks like it will need a final $6 million infusion before fully opening this fall.
The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, a K-12 complex on the former site of the Ambassador Hotel where Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, needs the money to satisfy environmental regulations.
School board members are scheduled Tuesday to vote on the additional funding request.
The school will consist of six different learning centers and enroll 4,260 students, making the cost per seat about $135,000 – nearly 40 percent higher than the average school built in the central Los Angeles area over the past two years.
It even exceeds the per-seat cost of the pricey High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, whose $132,000 per-seat price tag – along with its bold, roller-coaster inspired architecture – raised plenty of eyebrows when it opened in September 2009.
District officials say the cost of the Robert F. Kennedy complex is more than justified if you consider its urban location, historical significance and expected community role.
“It has all the modern amenities, like an underground garage, a pool, a state-of-the-art auditorium...,” said James Sohn, LAUSD’s chief facilities executive. “In that context, cost of the schools is appropriate.”
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“I am very excited that after many years of struggle and many years of community action, we can finally open the door on the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools project ...,” said LAUSD board President Monica Garcia. “This is going to be an amazing facility for some 4,000 K-12 students.”
Garcia acknowledged the cost, but noted that a lot of money has gone to a number of lawsuits and agreements to preserve the site.
“I am glad we invested when we did and this school continues to be part of the struggle to get to 100 percent graduation in this district.”
Neil Gamble, LAUSD’s deputy chief of facilities, said the new construction phase of the district's massive construction program is coming to an end, with only a couple of schools left to bid.
“We do not have another school of this magnitude either under construction or planned,” Gamble said.
School board member Steve Zimmer said he will look closely at the change orders that have been requested for the project. But he added that “if the true cost were $250,000 a seat, it would be worth every penny.”
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