Are Scotts Valley Schools Braced for the Big One?

A 19-month California Watch investigation released Thursday uncovered holes in the state's enforcement of seismic safety regulations for public schools.

California began regulating school architecture for seismic safety in 1933 with the Field Act, but data taken from the Division of the State Architect’s Office shows 20,000 school projects statewide never got final safety certifications. In the crunch to get schools built within the last few decades, state architects have been lax on enforcement, California Watch reported.

A separate inventory completed nine years ago found 7,500 seismically risky school buildings in the state. Yet, California Watch reports that only two schools have been able to access a $200 million fund for upgrades.

Of the four schools in the , , and , were deemed seismically safe. According to the investigation, none of the schools are located in liquefaction zones, landslide zones or Alquist-Priolo hazard zones.

However, a California Watch map of flagged schools shows that was designated as an AB-300 structure. In 1999, the state Legislature approved Assembly Bill 300, which required the Department of General Services to conduct a “collapse risk” inventory of all kindergarten-through-12th-grade buildings in the state. The buildings that did not measure up were put into the AB-300 category. The inventory concluded that 7,537 school buildings in the state were AB-300 structures and might not withstand an earthquake.

Scotts Valley Patch is looking into the AB-300 designation for SVMS and what the specific structural problems may be. Though the middle school was listed as AB 300, it is not in a liquefaction zone, landslide zone or Alquist-Priolo hazard zone, according to the investigation. No other school in Scotts Valley received the AB-300 label.

This story was produced using data provided to Patch by California Watch, the state's largest investigative reporting team and part of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Read more about with California Watch.