Bond work is under way

In July, two months after residents voted to approve a $98.9 million bond to fund the first phase of the Long Beach School District’s three-phase master plan to upgrade its aging facilities and programs, construction crews got to work on the four-part project.

The initial "emergency" work at Lindell School includes replacing the roof and reworking the parapets. Workers are now building a handicapped-accessible ramp at the school’s entrance and an elevator at the back of the building, in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. They are also preparing to work on the exterior masonry and install new windows, and testing the structural stability of the 70-year-old school, the second-oldest in the district.

Work on the master plan's first phase — which includes completing designs, putting projects out for bids and new construction and renovations at each school — is slated to be finished by December 2012.

“We’re exited to be in the beginning stages of this multi-year project,” said Michael DeVito, the district’s chief operating officer. “The construction work is well under way at Lindell, and the design process is moving along well at the other buildings.”

The second and third parts of the first phase will include work at the Lido complex that houses the middle school and an elementary school, and the fourth part will focus on the high school.

DeVito said he is is preparing to send out bid documents to the state Department of Education for work at the East, West and Lido elementary schools and the middle school and high school, with construction work expected to begin in December and continue through next April. The work on the East School will include exterior masonry repairs, roof replacement and restroom renovations. West school will see masonry repairs and the installation of a new boiler room and air vent, and the Lido complex will get a new roof.