Repair of 9 Schools Tied to Keeping State Funds : Education: L.A. district considers changing priorities to use $11.4 million in fix-it funds that otherwise would be lost. It also hopes to recoup $18.7 million already returned to the state.

The Los Angeles school board, once again facing a strict deadline to either use or lose state money for school improvements, will consider a proposal Monday to immediately earmark $11.4 million for renovating nine schools, including two in the harbor area.

The proposal would safeguard $1.4 million for Wilmington Park Elementary School and $323,000 for Dinker Elementary School in Gardena.

In addition, the school board will consider a proposal to recover another $18.7 million already returned to the state because the funds were not used at 23 schools. That amount includes nearly $2 million for two elementary schools in Wilmington, Fries Avenue and Gulf Avenue.

But while the board may be able to safeguard the funds now in jeopardy of being returned to the state, its chances of quickly recovering the money already lost are far from certain, according to district officials.

“It’s going to be rough,” said school board member Warren Furutani.

Last month, the district acknowledged that it returned $18.7 million to the state because the bond money had not been used within a year after it was allocated to specific schools. That deadline is established by the state so that any school district’s unused funds can be redistributed to other districts.

The funds went unused by the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials said, because its planning staff did not have enough personnel to move forward with the board’s top priority--building or expanding schools--as well as its lesser priority--renovating other schools.

To resolve that staffing problem, the school board will consider a proposal that would change its priorities in guiding a $300-million construction and renovation program. The proposal, developed by New Facilities Administrator Bonnie James, would have the district staff slow down its study of building or expanding schools so that it can immediately finalize plans for $11.4 million in renovation projects.

“It comes down to a workload problem that we think can be resolved with this proposal,” James said Friday. “And once we get these (renovation projects) out of the pipeline . . . we will revert back to the original priority of new schools and expansion.”

Although board members need only adopt James’ plan to keep the $11.4 million, they could face long and difficult negotiations in attempting to quickly recover the $18.7 million already returned to the state.

State officials have said that although those funds are still available to the district, the eligibility of specific schools to receive them will depend on when the district reapplies for the money. District officials, including James, have argued that the schools’ eligibility should depend on the date the money was returned.

The difference is significant because districts throughout the state are competing for the state bond money, and the amount dwindles each month. Currently, officials estimate that only $300 million of the $800 million in bond money from a June ballot measure has not yet been allocated.

If the district can persuade state officials to change their position, some or all of the $18.7 million already returned could be recouped in as little as a few months, either from the $300 million still remaining or from a new school bond measure proposed for the November ballot, officials said.

Otherwise, it could be another two years before the district receives the state funding it returned. That estimate is based largely on the likelihood that the projects would be again in line for funding in 1992, when the next statewide school bond measure is expected to appear on the ballot.

Two local principals whose campuses have already waited five years for improvements were disappointed but not surprised by the prospect of further delays in receiving renovation money.

“We assumed the money was gone,” said Helen Friedman, principal of Fries Avenue Elementary. The school, with 1,300 students, was built before 1920 and is in line for $1.2 million in improvements. The work is to include installation of heating and air conditioning, ramps and elevators for the disabled, and for general upkeep of several buildings.

Gulf Avenue Elementary has been slated for $767,000 in improvements. With 1,260 students using classrooms and an auditorium built almost 70 years ago, the school is in need of everything from new lighting and ventilation to repairs of walls and ceilings, Principal Delores Buettgenbach said.

“I’m talking about aging and things that are just obsolete,” she said. “Some of the classes in our old brick building, I would guess, have not been painted for 30 years.”