For three years, a fallen ceiling has kept a teachers' restroom at Farrington High School closed.

At Benjamin Parker Elementary School, in rainy Kane'ohe, water drips into the classrooms, the cafeteria and the library.

On the hot, dry Leeward Coast, teachers in a Nanakuli High School classroom with no air conditioning must decide whether to deal with the heat or allow red dirt to blow in through the windows.

With $524.5 million in backlogged repairs, the state Department of Education is deciding which school projects take priority and working to convince lawmakers to give schools a share of the state's $535 million budget surplus projected for this fiscal year.

"There's going to be a lot of competition" for the money, said House Education Chairman Roy Takumi, who toured the schools yesterday along with other legislators and DOE personnel.

While the DOE has needs, so do the departments of Human Services, Public Safety, Hawaiian Home Lands and others. There is also a call for some of the surplus to be used for a tax rebate.

But lawmakers have been visiting schools in their districts to identify their needs, and there are many, including some that have been requested for years.

"There's this huge backlog that looks like a black hole," said Gilbert Chun, acting director of the DOE's Accountability Branch.

Leaky roofs are such a major problem — accounting for almost $84 million of the backlog — that the department has decided to make them a top priority, before looking at other pressing problems at the schools.

"We really have big roof problems," said Farrington principal Catherine Payne. In addition to the teachers' restroom, a girls' locker room under a set of concrete bleachers is also having leak problems. The leaks are certainly not coming from the pool next to it — the pool has sat empty for at least 20 years.

Termites and dry rot plague the Junior ROTC building and some of the school's railings are awaiting asbestos removal. Although money to fix the railings was budgeted by the Legislature, it has yet to be released.

Ben Parker also has roof problems. With five buildings and generally only enough money to repair one roof a year, principal Wade Araki expects it to take another few years before the dripping is stopped. Deciding which building is most in need can be a challenge.

"It's a choice. I would do it all if I had the money," he said.

Another problem is that all the dropped ceilings were removed after a similar ceiling collapsed at Kailua Intermediate last school year. Not only is it an eyesore, but it also gives birds and rodents access to the ceilings.

In addition, the school needs to be repainted because the current paint no longer protects against moisture, and rebar is starting to push through the exterior walls.

Problems like these push things such as drainage issues lower on the priority list, even though in one spot, erosion is eating away the land near a building and will eventually threaten its foundation.

Araki is concerned about the DOE's policy of awarding contracts to the lowest bidder, which he said leads to lower-quality work. "Sometimes the work is done poorly," he said.

In one instance, a wooden ceiling patch wasn't cut straight.

A bigger problem was an elevator that has taken a year to build and initially was not wheelchair-accessible as intended. That forced the contractor to build a ramp from the parking lot.

Nanakuli principal Levi Chang said the problems at his school are "nothing that other schools don't endure."

But like many other public schools, especially those in the Leeward district, heat is a problem and with circular buildings, Nanakuli classrooms have little in the way of cross-ventilation.

"It's like a sauna in the classroom," said vice principal Flora Nash. Sprinklers would provide some relief by allowing grass to grow and help the dust problem that causes allergies and damages computers, Nash said.

The heat can lead to more than just discomfort.

"The students cannot focus. They act out and the next thing you know, you might have a class out of control," Nash said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.