Central Coast News KION/KCBAPajaro Valley School District Plans for Earthquake Safety

PAJARO VALLEY- Chief Business Officer Brett McFadden is coordinating $200,000 to make sure every single building in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District is safe.

"School buildings must be able withstand certain wind, earthquake, fire conditions and have a certain resiliency," said McFadden.

The AB-300 list, created by the State's Division of Architect in 2002, gave him an idea on where to start. But he's facing challenges.

"The tough thing we're having with this list is that work was performed say 20 years ago, 10 years ago, maybe even longer...30 years ago. The trouble that we're having is that we haven't received verification from the Department of State Architect about 'Alright, you're closed out on this project, you met the requirements," said McFadden.

Here's an example: Two of the buildings listed as having seismic issues in the Pajaro School District are Watsonville High School. The only problem? The buildings don't exist anymore. They were built in 1938 and have since been demolished.

It's the same story with other buildings in the district, or projects McFadden spent months waiting for final approval on.

But here's the catch- the Division of State Architect said fixing and retrofitting old buildings on the list isn't mandatory.

"There's no requirement on districts. The state encourages districts to take this list seriously and evaluate the conditions of those buildings. But at the end of the day, it is the district's responsibility what actions they want to take," said DSA spokesperson Eric Lamoureux.

And in Pajaro Valley that action is working from the list the state created in 2002.