| Electricians restore lights in JROTC room (11/07) | | Print | |
| Written by Rachel Hwang | |
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The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps is finally enjoying a well-lit classroom, although the party responsible for the repair is unknown. The JROTC room remained dark for two months until Oct. 23, when two electricians visited the room and repaired the lights in only a few hours. Although JROTC members and the administration believed that the district was responsible for the delay in repair, it may be the construction company, Vanir, that was responsible. According to the district’s head of buildings and grounds, Joel Powell, the construction workers cut a wall containing the wiring for the JROTC classroom. Because Vanir cut the wire, Powell explained, the district expected the company to repair the lights. “They cut them,” Powell said. “They had to fix them. We just do maintenance.” The multiple work orders sent to the district did nothing to speed the repair. “Every time we received a work order, we called the construction company,” Powell said. Powell said that eventually the construction company sent electricians to correct the problem. However, a construction worker who asked to remain anonymous reported that he had not heard of the company sending any electricians or even of the construction workers being responsible for the problem. There are no records of any electricians having visited the campus on Oct. 23 at all in the front office sign-in book. Janée Montelongo, the assistant principal in charge of building and grounds, declined to comment. Vanir construction officials refused to comment for the story without an administrator present. Principal Andy Ishibashi said that he did not know that the construction company may have been causing the delay. In fact, after several work orders, Ishibashi called the superintendent, mentioning the possibility of a Williams Act complaint, which would indicate a violation of the safe learning environment guaranteed by the Act. Williams Act complaints have serious consequences, as they are brought up to the state level and are potential lawsuits, Ishibashi explained. Several JROTC students filed Williams complaint forms which they printed off the district Web site. According to Isibashi, however, the complaints were not legitimate because they must be passed through the principal and put on an official form. However, according to JROTC member junior Jarrett Hornbostel, the threat of Williams Act complaints was mentioned at the [DATE] San Francisco Unified School District board meeting. JROTC students are not concerned about who fixed the lights, whether it was the construction company electricians or the district electricians. They are simply glad to have functional lights. “Finally!” sophomore JROTC member Amanda Lee-Low said. “I’m so glad there are lights now. I can do my homework again.” And they don’t understand why it didn’t happen sooner. “I’m just disappointed that it was overlooked for so long when it could be so quickly resolved,” Hornbostel said. |
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to listen.
