AGOURA HILLS : School Office Repairs Ahead of Schedule

Repair of Agoura Hills High School offices damaged in a firebombing last year could be completed up to four weeks sooner than expected, an official said Thursday.

Donald Zimring, assistant superintendent at Las Virgenes Unified School District, said that even though the $498,190 project bogged down initially because of disagreements among the school, the architects and the insurers about design, it went through the state’s complex approval process on a fast track, allowing construction to begin ahead of schedule last week.

But district officials are not consoled by the speedy approval and the 60-day estimate for completion of construction.

“Everybody’s nervous that we won’t get it done before school starts,” Zimring said. The extensive rebuilding of the school’s administrative and support offices will include a modernization of the electrical, telephone, intercom and air-conditioning systems.

Two Agoura Hills students were charged with starting the blaze, which completely destroyed the athletic director’s office and caused extensive smoke damage throughout the school. Since the fire, administrators have been working out of four makeshift portable offices.

The students, ages 16 and 17, whose names are being withheld because they are juveniles, were expelled from the school and charged with felony arson and threatening a witness. They are awaiting sentencing, Zimring said.