If Mark Keppel High School were an office or an apartment building, the owner would be cited as a slumlord and ordered to fix the place up. But because it is a public school, the building overflows with students while it continues to rot.
The wiring is so bad that power failures occur several times a day in the business wing. "Sometimes power outages happen two to three times during one class period, so instead of 52 minutes of instruction, I have 12 minutes to teach them," says computer teacher Susan Merritt, a member of the Alhambra Teachers Association (ATA). "Since the beginning of the school year, the power has gone off nearly 300 times."
Keppel's 1939 chemistry lab was built to accommodate 24 students. Now expected to hold 36-40, the space between the lab benches must be used for desks.
"It's frustrating," says keyboarding student John Pang. "We always lose our work because we don't save it fast enough. I try to save my work every few minutes."
In the gym, athletes regularly dodge tiles falling from the ceiling, which looms more than 25 feet above their playing area. The ceiling has so many tiles missing that it resembles Swiss cheese.
So far, no students have been hit by tiles, but there have been some close calls. Warren Truong, 16, recalls one of those close calls. "It was very scary."
In the industrial arts building, students' desks and shoe heels get caught in the rotting floor tiles. "My desk always gets caught in the holes," says student Larry Chen. "And someone is always tripping when the pieces come out."
The auto mechanics class is taught in a corrugated metal shed that heats up to 120 degrees on warm days - and warm days happen frequently in Southern California. "The sun beats right down on it, and there's no fan or air conditioning," says teacher Brad Walsh. "The building doesn't have insulation, but it does have heaters."
Built in 1939 under President Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) program, Mark Keppel High School was named for the original superintendent of schools in Los Angeles County. Most of its original infrastructure is still in place. The school's wiring, boilers, lighting system, student lockers and even window blinds all date back to the Depression Era. And being in such an environment on a daily basis - with dimly lit hallways and classrooms, broken windows, inadequate restrooms and overcrowding - can cause depression for students, teachers and staff.
Teacher Susan Merritt tries to recover information Tri Hoang lost in one of the frequent power outages in the computer lab.
"We are long overdue for a makeover," says Cheston Kwan, a senior. "I am proud of the spirit of my school, but I am ashamed of its appearance."
Even sadder is the attitude of other students, who have attended deteriorating schools throughout their entire academic careers and don't realize they deserve better.
"I've gotten used to the conditions here," says Ahiro Romero, 14. "It seems normal to me for school be like this."
Although Mark Keppel High School could easily serve as a poster child for deteriorating school facilities throughout California, there are many California schools in similar condition. Mark Keppel reflects the tragic neglect schools have suffered since Prop. 13 and points out the obstacles that communities face when trying to fix them.
The Alhambra City School District tried to pass a $43.25 million bond measure in June. If it had been successful, Mark Keppel would have received $23 million with the rest divided among other district high schools, some of them built 70 to 80 years ago. The bond measure received 64 percent of the vote, but failed to win the necessary two-thirds majority - 66.7 percent. It fell just 102 votes short.
Space is at a premium in Keppel's open air lunch area.
In March, California voters will have an opportunity to replace the two-thirds requirement with majority rule. The CTA-sponsored ballot measure, the Let's Fix Our Schools initiative (Prop. 26), would solve the facilities crisis and improve public education in California.
"I get very angry knowing it takes a two-thirds vote to fix a school building, but it only takes a majority to build a prison or a sports stadium," says ATA President Steve Kornfeld. "We say we're a country that values our children, but the reality is what we show our kids. We are showing them we don't value them. Mark Keppel High School is the absolute antithesis of any message we want to send our students. And it is an absolute tragedy for teachers and students to work under these conditions."
The school population is 70 percent Asian and 30 percent Hispanic, with socio-economic levels ranging from wealthy to welfare. Designed to accommodate 1,100 students, it now has a population of 2,200 and has had as many as 3,000 students at one time. To accommodate the surging population, 25 bungalows were brought in. The trailers eat up the student quad area, leaving little space for students to have lunch. Since there are not enough tables, clusters of students stand in closely packed groups or sit on the ground.
With so many portables, schools like Keppel look more like trailer parks than places of learning.
"These kids need a place where they can eat like human beings," says ATA member Cynthia Kubal. "This just isn't right."
The school also lacks adequate bathroom facilities. Until recently, there was just one bathroom per gender to accommodate 2,200 students and 200 staff. Recently, portable bathrooms were brought in, which added a few stalls. Now there are about 15 stalls for men and 23 for women. In the main boys' bathroom, none of the stalls have doors. The pipes break frequently and the plumbing lacks water pressure.
With a boiler heating system dating back to the '30s, the school is often too hot or too cold. Air conditioning units in the ceiling leak throughout the library and in other areas of the building. The electrical wiring needs to be completely redone. In one of the teacher lounge areas, the microwave oven, coffee pot and refrigerator cannot be plugged in. Any work on plumbing and the electrical system must include asbestos removal; the carcinogenic material is underneath the school and, if disturbed, could be dangerous. It will cost more than $1 million to remove it.
Too few electrical outlets in classrooms hinder the ability of students to utilize computers. English and journalism teacher David Tarr nonetheless tries to prepare students for the age of technology; he operates eight computers, one television and one VCR with just one electrical outlet and several extension cords.
Science students use the school's original chemistry lab from 1939, which was built to accommodate 24 students and now holds 36-40 at a time. "On non-lab days, we put a row of desks between the lab benches to make room for all the students," says AP chemistry teacher Janice Mangerino. "I have the top AP chemistry scores in the district. My students rise to the occasion here because they have no choice."
Because of dedicated staff and striving students, learning takes place at Mark Keppel in spite of the school environment. Students scored in the 65th percentile of the SAT in math and verbal skills.
"These are great kids," says Mangerino. "And they deserve great facilities to match what they are capable of doing. It's only fair."
