Posted on: Thursday, November 18, 2004

DOE gets money to handle repairs

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday that she has released $100 million in school repair and maintenance money to the state Department of Education, giving the department more authority over a nagging backlog of repairs sooner than it had anticipated.

School principals and parents have complained about the slow pace of school repairs — with

a backlog now estimated at $460 million. An education reform law approved this year by the state Legislature over Lingle's veto transfers power over repair and maintenance to the DOE.

Department officials have been talking with the state Department of Accounting and General Services, which has done most of the repair work, about a transition plan to move 250 to 300 workers and other resources over to the DOE by the next fiscal year in July.

In the meantime, DAGS was expected to continue to do most of the work. Lingle released the first half of the repair money in September, which will be managed through DAGS, but has since decided that the DOE should be responsible for the second half of the money and should select the contractors for the jobs.

"For too long, our schools have been plagued with worsening physical conditions and a growing backlog of repairs," Lingle wrote in a letter to school principals. "Over the past several months, I have reviewed the reasons why this situation has arisen and concluded that a significant problem lies with the way in which repair and maintenance projects are processed within the bureaucracy."

Lingle also urged school principals to contact state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto about their repair priorities.

Earlier yesterday, in her weekly radio show, the governor reminded listeners that Hama-

moto had asked for the resources to do her job in a speech to the Legislature in January. Lingle also referred to previous claims by the DOE that some of the obstacles to school repair involved other departments, particularly DAGS.

"But they have to take responsibility now, and they have to stop the finger-pointing. It's gone on too long," Lingle said. "The public needs to know, and the Legislature needs to know, who to hold accountable when the projects aren't done."

Hamamoto said the governor's decision "throws us for a loop."

"We will do it," Hamamoto said of the repairs. "I don't think we have any other choice."

Rae Loui, assistant superintendent at the DOE's Office of Business Services, had a stronger reaction. "I'm appalled actually, and I'm concerned for our schools," she said.

The DOE will likely be expected to oversee the repair work from now until July without any extra manpower, Loui said, although the department would still have the option of using DAGS. Loui said the two departments, after three to four months of negotiations, had only agreed on the transfer of a minimal number of workers and were far from finalizing how to move the 250 to 300 workers expected.

"I'm surprised," she said. "It's a 180-degree change."

Russ Saito, the state's comptroller, said that while the negotiations were in "good faith," he and the governor decided that the new law clearly requires the full transfer of money and power over school repair and maintenance to the DOE. Over the next several months — with $50 million in repair money — the DOE will be able to test how it selects contractors and monitors projects before it has full control in July.

"They asked for the responsibility," Saito said.

The aging infrastructure at public schools has been a long-standing concern for school administrators, students and parents. DAGS estimated at one point that the repair backlog was as high as $800 million and the DOE said as late as last summer that the backlog was $600 million. Loui said yesterday that progress had been made, both in completing repairs and in more accurately documenting the work that still needs to be done, and put the backlog at $460 million.

The conflict over the school repair money is the second time Lingle and the DOE have had a dispute over the new law. The DOE, and some Democratic lawmakers, criticized the Republican governor last summer for not immediately releasing money for new math textbooks and to lower class sizes in the early grades. The Lingle administration and the DOE are still in talks over the release of all of the money lawmakers approved for the law.

Over the next few years, DAGS and several other state departments are expected to transfer school-related functions to the DOE. The law also creates a new student spending formula and new school community councils.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.