Posted on: Monday, December 27, 2004
School repair, maintenance requests will be delayed
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer
Public schools that have been waiting for action on their most urgent repair and maintenance requests — some for years — may have to wait even longer as the Department of Education figures out how it will manage the projects.
With the Education Department facing a $460 million backlog in repair and maintenance, schools generally have a long wait between setting their priorities and seeing the work done anyway. But this year a late release of money and an accelerated transfer of authority for some of the projects to the DOE from the Department of Accounting and General Services have exacerbated the problem, according to Rae Loui, assistant superintendent in charge of business services.
The result is a delay in all repair and maintenance projects, said Loui. And schools with projects that will now fall under the DOE can expect to wait even longer than those that continue to have their work done by Accounting and General Services.
That's the case at Koko Head Elementary School, where $1.3 million in classroom renovations had been scheduled to begin in March. That has been pushed back to summer under the DOE's oversight.
Other schools don't even have a projected start date.
For instance, Lana'i High and Elementary School needs an electrical upgrade so that when students turn on computers in one classroom the room next door doesn't lose electricity.
"It sure would be nice to have it done during spring break," said principal Pierce Myers.
Schools say they desperately need the work completed, but principals reached last week were not alarmed by the delay. Many of the repairs need to be done while students are on break, anyway. Myers said after talking with the DOE that he thinks his school's work will probably be done during the summer.
The earliest start date for DOE-managed construction is July 3, compared with a March 2 start date for renovations managed by Accounting and General Services.
However, in the future, the DOE says it will be able to get to repairs faster than Accounting and General Services, which handles construction projects for all state agencies.
The DOE has not detailed how it expects to do that.
Its list of repair and maintenance work runs 30 pages, detailing hundreds of projects ranging from replacing grease traps to reroofing. Among the most expensive projects awaiting action are classroom renovations ranging from $779,000 to $4.8 million at 23 schools.
Accounting and General Services already has done design work for about 60 percent of the projects now assigned to the DOE, but Lana'i High and Elementary School's electrical work is one of many projects the DOE will have to start from scratch.
Having its work done during the summer actually works better for Koko Head Elementary.
Principal Cecilia Lum said she doesn't mind waiting since the two-week spring intercession would not have been long enough to finish the school's 30 classrooms.
"I think it's kind of better for us. It gives them more time to work," she said.
The work includes new windows, doors, carpet, paint, cupboards, sinks and replacing blackboards with white boards.
Lum just hopes the work starts before teachers leave for summer vacation so they can empty their own classrooms, instead of leaving it to the people doing the renovations.
Right now the project is scheduled to begin in July.
Loui said $100 million for school repairs had been expected to be released over the summer, but in September only half was released to the Department of Accounting and General Services, which has traditionally handled these projects.
The other $50 million came in November when Gov. Linda Lingle gave it to the DOE instead of Accounting and General Services. The new authority came at the DOE's request, even though it was not yet prepared to oversee the projects. Officials wanted eventual autonomy to avoid going through the general services department every time a school needed a repair.
As part of the Reinventing Education Act of 2004, the DOE expected to take full responsibility for repair and maintenance projects, but not until July 2005, when 250 to 300 Accounting and General Services employees will also be transferred to the education department.
While the DOE was caught off guard by the sooner-than-expected new responsibilities, state Comptroller Russ Saito has said that the early transfer will give the DOE time to test how it selects contractors and monitors projects before it has full control in July. He also has said he will continue to work with DOE during the transition.
"We'll be able to control our whole destiny," said Gilbert Chun, head of the DOE's Operations and Maintenance division. "We're looking at completely reorganizing the way we do business with the schools."
Chun said the transfer of responsibility will make the DOE more accountable to the schools and will make it easier for the schools and community to track progress of the projects.
"We're hoping we can implement new ways of handling construction projects so that maybe the jobs will be done faster and more efficiently," he said.
But like Loui, Chun warns schools they will have to be patient. "It's going to be a slow process," he said. "We really can't change things overnight, but we'll certainly do our best to implement best practices."
As for tackling the $460 million backlog, both Chun and Loui said it will require more money than the $100 million or so the Legislature allocates for repair and maintenance each year.
Since the schools add about $100 million in projects every year, it is difficult for the DOE to address the backlog.
"We're barely just keeping up with what's deteriorated over the last year," Loui said.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.
