KABC-TV reports that a 45-by-75-foot crater, eight feet deep, has appeared on the courts outside Linda Esperanza Marquez High School in Huntington Park.
Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District say the pavement is collapsing into a man-made basin that the district created to collect rainwater. Similar basins have been installed at about 40 other district schools, but none has resulted in a collapse comparable to the one at Marquez.
The courts have been fenced off and inaccessible to students and others since the beginning of the year, when cracks in pavement and settling were detected.
The district is confident that the crater will not grow any larger, and workers have begun repairs at the site. The work is expected to take two to three months.
Mike Kennedy has been writing about education for American School & University since 1999. He also has reported on schools and other topics for The Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star, The Kansas City Times and City News Bureau of Chicago. He is a graduate of Michigan State University.
