Schools could get $195M for repairs, maintenance

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

The shabby state of many Hawai'i public school buildings could improve this year with an infusion of money to help dent a $640 million backlog of repair and maintenance problems.

Lenore Kop shows a missing faucet in her lab room at Farrington High School. The Legislature is considering freeing $120 million for school repairs, after years of budgeting around $35 million a year or less. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

The money is a reversal of fortune for a system that spent only $10 million on repairs and maintenance two years ago, and means that schools will receive not only cosmetic fixes but solid infrastructure improvements. Officials say the money also offers hope for the first time that the backlog can perhaps be wiped out eventually, and all schools brought to an acceptable condition.

The House has approved $120 million for school repair and maintenance to help renovate more than 60 older public schools. The Senate Ways and Means Committee is considering the proposal, and has yet to make a decision on what the schools should receive. Both houses will have to agree on an amount before the end of the legislative session.

"I believe there is strong support in both houses for school repair and maintenance," said Senate Ways and Means Committee vice-chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa. "If there is any capital improvements money, I imagine that it will go to the schools as well. If we have the money, we'll give it. It's just like everything else — it's finding the money."

Projects languish

Typical state spending on school repairs has hovered at around $35 million annually for the last several years, dipping as low as $10 million in 2000. Schools that need repair work typically watch their projects languish for years or even decades on the state's to-do list.

James Richardson, chief of the Central Services Division of the Department of Accounting and General Services, said he is crossing his fingers that money for the schools will still be there when the legislative session wraps up in May.

"The Legislature is giving us this money, and we have an opportunity now to make a tremendous push to improve the facilities and furniture," said Richardson, whose agency oversees public school repair and maintenance. "We're just happy to get these monies appropriated for the schools. ... There's been a lot of money for new libraries and new schools and gymnasiums. The older schools have waited quite some time."

Gov. Ben Cayetano had proposed spending $255 million toward the school repair backlog earlier this year as a way to help bolster the state economy.

Even as the education budget is taking cuts, Al Suga, assistant superintendent for administrative services at the Department of Education, said it appears the state may take care of long-neglected school repair and maintenance.

Budget doubled

Termites have chewed up furniture in Lenore Kop's lab room at Farrington High School, which is due to get $2 million in repairs this year as lawmakers pledge to put a dent the $640 million backlog of deferred maintenance. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We all support the DAGS repair and maintenance budget," Suga said. "It's something that pretty much the governor has pushed as a way to fix the schools and stimulate the construction economy."

To that end, during an emergency session last fall to try to help the state's struggling economy, the Legislature approved an additional $75 million in classroom renovation work outside the regular state budget. Renovations from that effort are under way or in the planning stages at 40 campuses.

If the Legislature approves $120 million for repairs this session, it would mean $195 million in repair work at schools over the course of a year and a half.

Farrington High School principal Catherine Payne said her campus will have about $2 million in work done this year, starting in the summer. That includes work on the science building, which has classrooms with no lab tables or running water for science experiments. The school also will get long-needed plumbing and electrical work. Water pipes have corroded and some of the classrooms have only two electrical outlets.

With $12.5 million in needs, Farrington has the biggest repair and maintenance backlog in the state.

"When you dig up the pipes, they fall apart in your hands," Payne said. "The water is brown. That's why we're all carrying our own Menehune (water) bottles around."

Richardson said the new spending is something of a turnaround for the schools, which got less than $10 million in 2000.

"We couldn't even give every school one project," Richardson said. "It sounds like a lot of money, but when you talk about spreading it over 260 schools, it's not a lot. Most of what we were able to do was health- and safety-related."

The Department of Accounting and General Services spent a lot of time painting schools — a quick cosmetic fix.

"Paint was only $11 a gallon," Richardson said. "You put a fresh coat on and it doesn't look too bad. That's all we could do."

Now the agency is able to consider complete building renovations. Student desks can be refurbished by state prison workers, who sandblast and repaint the frame and add new wooden tops.

"It makes a difference in the learning environment," Richardson said. "Everybody takes pride in the schools when there's new lights, windows, furniture and paint."

If the state continues to spend in the range of $100 million a year, his department could whittle away the $640 million backlog within six years, Richardson said.

For now, it is trying to have all 40 current renovation projects finished by the end of the year. If the work is not done quickly, Richardson said, the Legislature might be reluctant to continue to release money for school repairs.

To concentrate its efforts on renovations, the department has pulled some of its workers away from school campuses and left school custodians with responsibilities for jobs such as changing locks and lights.

Gordon Matsuoka, public works administrator for the Department of Accounting and General Services, said the state released the money for the 40 projects in October, and by February everything was designed and out to bid.

"It's the fastest we've ever done anything," he said with a laugh. "It was a major effort and it's still a scramble."

While the work went out to bid, Central Services ordered all the materials that would be needed, Matsuoka said. That eliminated a lag time of several weeks between the awarding of a contract and when work can actually start.

Construction slows

The future does not look as bright for new school buildings. The DOE has been pushing the Legislature to increase its budget from $45 million to $90 million for new school construction, without success.

DOE officials estimate Hawai'i schools will need $1.2 billion in capital improvements during the next 10 years. That includes major renovation projects and building classroom space in growing areas such as Kapolei and Maui.

So far, the Legislature this session has not provided money for the completion of Kapolei High School or Mililani Mauka Elementary School, which serve some of the fastest-growing areas in the state.

There is no money in the regular state budget under consideration at the Legislature to build a new school in the Mililani Mauka area or to complete Kapolei High School, which serve some of the fastest-growing areas in the state.

However, if legislators approve a measure that would take $100 million from the state's Hurricane Relief Fund, $7 million would help complete the second Mililani Mauka campus and $13.5 million would help do about half of the work needed to finish Kapolei High School.

But the capital improvement budget does include projects such as replacing cesspools with sewage systems and complying with gender equity laws by having comparable locker and showers facilities for male and female athletes.

"It's not a big investment, but I think over the long term that kind of investment is going to be a part of health and safety and legal compliance," Suga said.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.

Correction: There is no money in the regular state budget under consideration at the Legislature to build a new school in the Mililani Mauka area or to complete Kapolei High School. However, if legislators approve a measure that would take $100 million from the state's Hurricane Relief Fund, $7 million would help complete the second Mililani Mauka campus and $13.5 million would help do about half of the work needed to finish Kapolei High School. A previous version of this story did not include that information.