The contract is for one year and will pay Morlin $731,342, the school district says, with an option to renew the contract for an additional 20 months for slightly more than $1.3 million, subject to school board approval. The new contract will allow the school district's maintenance and operation staff to focus on the schools, according to J. Randall Moore, president of Morlin, which recently began the management duties.

The contract encompasses properties at 1330 Pico Blvd., 3741 S. La Brea Blvd., 3710 S. La Brea Blvd., 2710 Media Center Drive, 1115 S. Boyle Ave., the 45-story KPMG Tower at 355 South Grand Ave. and the LAUSD headquarters at the Beaudry Center at 333 S. Beaudry Ave.

The district's properties consist of 959 K-12 schools and centers for a student enrollment of 905,020 students, more than 80,000 teachers and a service area of 704 square miles. In addition to the city of Los Angeles, the district serves many other cities and several unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Morlin Management Corp., established in 1984, manages more than 6.5 million sf of properties in California.