Pete Moye’
News Button

The addition of the new Physical Science and Technology building and the Aquatic Center, as well as the renovation of the new gymnasium, has left some of Cerritos College’s older buildings such as the Social Science building to be fixed without being given the proper attention when being fixed.

The Social Science building was planned to have the final phase of the interior renovations done to the building as early as the summer of 2011.

The work that was said to be done was set to included new doors and hardware, white boards, and tack boards, along with painting and renovation of the basement offices as mentioned during a Jul. 6 Board Meeting.

The Social Science Renovation Project was in the planning phases of the building as early as May 2010, according to the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee Report, which was presented to the Board of Trustees on May 19, 2010.

One of the things not mentioned was a sealing of one of two doors in each classroom within the building that took place over the summer.

It was not until Oct. 11, that the wood planks sealing the doors were taken out, and many doorways are left without a door attached to the door frame.

A sign outside each classroom reads, “Effective 9/7/2011, This classroom will not be secure. Please do not leave any personal items. Effective until further notice.”

Faculty members who work in the SS building were not satisfied with the result.

One of those faculty members is the Department Chair for Administration of Justice department, Doug Haynes, who has been a part of the Cerritos College Staff for more than 18 years.

“The only thing we have seen is before the semester began, [the contractors] had sealed the secondary doors, now eight weeks into the semester, nothing has been done to correct that, thank god we haven’t had a major earthquake or something and now they have just put in these replacement doors, which you can see the safety hazard that the way they have been installed has been created, people will get hurt and killed,” Haynes said.

Some of the changes that were set to have been done sometime during the summer are just beginning to happen.

On Oct. 4, the replacement doors Doug Haynes talk about, were installed in some cases to the point that two classroom doors on the second floor will hit each other.

The newly installed doors also were not equipped with any hardware to prevent the classroom doors from slamming, when they close behind someone entering a class room.

Another renovation just beginning to take place is the painting of the basement offices, which was also planned to have been done during the summer.

A set of stairs, which led to the offices, were being taped off with a sign stating: “The stairway to the basement is closed for renovation. Please use the staircase around the back by the Liberal Arts building. (Not the outside staircase in the middle of the building that goes up to the third floor).”