But it all starts with the Legislature. The backlog soared amid tight budgets through the state's economic downturn in the 1990s. The problem was aggravated by aging school facilities in need of more and more major repairs.

Last session, with the economy humming and the schools in dire need, the Legislature allotted more than one-third of the state's surplus to repair the schools.

"The drop in the backlog depends on the funding we get out of the Legislature," said Duane Kashiwai, DOE public works manager for the Facilities Development branch, and one of those who moved over from DAGS. "This is the lowest the backlog has been for a while."

While officials say the newly funded projects will be completed in about two years — less than half the time they've taken in the past — the DOE has already taken them off the official backlog list. Once the projects are allotted funding, said Kashiwai, they come off the list, which has been the standard practice.

"Everybody gets a share of the monies released," said Kashiwai. "Every school gets a priority project done. ... They have a lot of say in what gets done."

Despite a recent audit of Kailua High School that raised questions about the dependability of DOE's official repair and maintenance list, Kashiwai said the tally kept by the central office is the list they all use.

As a compilation of all big repair projects at all the schools, the list is modified constantly in consultation with the schools as new things break, repairs are completed or school officials change priorities.

"It's not a static number," said Kashiwai. "It moves around a lot. But as they (projects) are funded, we take them off the backlog."

At Aliamanu Elementary, the priority has been fixing the cracking and buckling floors, the cracked and chipped walls, and the worn-out light fixtures, doors and old blackboards.

In some of the worst classrooms, a ball rolls downhill no matter where it sits, and patches zigzag across the tile. In others, doors are shredding and lights are rusting. Virtually every building has a long steel beam running the length of the roof to keep it from collapsing — a fix that was done about a decade ago.

"They started working on the project before I came aboard," said vice principal Valarie Kamemoto, who has been there three years. "When I came on board, they were looking at architects' plans."

With all the construction on campus, the school has taken precautions to make sure children are safe, and truck drivers are wary. The other day, as a cement truck tilted and dumped a load of concrete, some of the younger students lined up against the construction fence, gawking. The $4.6 million renovations include tearing up concrete slabs, digging down six or more feet under the sagging buildings to remove the poor soil, and replacing it with concrete fill and new concrete floors.

While 6-year-old first-grader Enrique Aguilera smiled broadly and said the new sidewalks "look nice," his mother thinks it would make more sense to fix everything while the hubbub is in progress.

"The progress seems good," said Maria Aguilera, who has three children in the school, "but we wish they could upgrade the electrical system, too, so they can put the fans in."

Electrical upgrade money is part of what the DOE got this year. Planning has already begun for that, said Kashiwai, and it could be done soon after the current construction is complete.

Meanwhile, at the Center for the Deaf and the Blind, administrator Freitas-Dickerson said the coming classroom renovations will wipe out many of the 35 projects on her laundry list of repairs and maintenance.

"Quite a few will be taken care of by the renovations, and this list will be a lot shorter," she said. "But as things come off, we add new projects as things are built and need to be maintained."

The new money means her campus will also have a leaky building reroofed.

Once the reroofing and renovations are done, she'll be ready to add another big project — renovating the dormitories used for Neighbor Island children.

In the past, some schools have not put all their needs on the backlog list simply because there was so little hope it would get done, said Farrington High principal Catherine Payne. That is changing, she said.

"People have more hope," she said.

ALLOCATING THE FUNDS

Of the $235 million allotted by the 2006 Legislature to slice away at the backlog, $75 million was earmarked for large projects and $160 million to finish the ongoing six-year effort to renovate almost 200 of the state's oldest schools.

The $75 million has already been committed to about 1,100 major projects, said DOE engineer Greg Tanaka — everything from reroofing and resurfacing parking lots to replacing utility lines. And the larger amount will complete classroom renovations on the remaining 96 of the oldest schools.

So far the DOE is halfway through its ambitious school renovation plans. The upgrades are extensive.

"We take a bunch of classrooms, gut them, take out the windows, the floors, repaint them inside and out and put in all new stuff," said Kashiwai.

The improvements also involve a new and smoother working relationship that has been forged with the Office of Budget and Finance so projects are ready to go when money is released, speeding things up by as much as six to nine months, according to DOE planner Sanford Beppu.

In the past, said Beppu, "it was really unpredictable."

But also, the department has managed to streamline its own process.

"When we ask for the money," said Kashiwai, "we have the project scope and budget, so when we get the money we can hit the ground running."

TENDING TO SMALL FIXES

Meanwhile, small fixes such as broken light fixtures or broken toilets that afflict all schools are also being done in short order thanks to a dedicated 125-person DOE repair force formerly part of DAGS.

The "delinking" from DAGS enabled the crew to focus specifically on small work orders for the schools. These repairs are paid for from a separate account of about $28 million.

In the past, schools waited as long as two years to have small fixes made. Now the turnaround is two weeks, according to Francis Cheung who heads the facilities maintenance branch that handles work orders.

In a survey of school satisfaction levels, 87 percent of schools responding said responsiveness to small work order repairs has improved since the delinking began July 1, 2005. And 95 percent of the schools responding said work crews were able to keep up with their repair needs.

Farrington's Payne feels it's a new era for the schools in seeing small repairs done quickly.

"If we call in an emergency repair, within hours someone is there to fix it," she said. "That never happened before."

THE BIGGER PICTURE

With the crew doing small repairs wholly dedicated to that, Kashiwai oversees the bigger projects. That means while planning begins for new repair projects, he must still oversee renovations already under way.

At Wahiawa Middle School, for instance, a full-on renovation is in full swing after years of waiting for the work to begin.

"We started the planning four years ago, and for the past couple of years we kept thinking we were coming up," said principal Price. "Last year we were on some list and got dropped. You get on the list, and the funding doesn't come through and then you get dropped."

But renovations began over the summer, and they're moving smoothly. Four classrooms are being done at a time. Students and teachers move to alternate digs on a Friday afternoon and are ready to begin teaching in their new spaces when the doors open again on Monday.

"When we return from break next week, four classrooms will be in new rooms," said Price.

The facelift has been an important emotional lift as well.

"When you're labeled as a restructured school and not making 'adequate yearly progress' (toward state performance goals), that's sort of a cloud that rests over you," said Price. "So it's nice to have this injection. It's like you're all in one flow. Your buildings are being renovated while you're restructuring your curriculum."

'IT'S A FRESH, NEW LOOK'

Kim, the parent who is Wahiawa's Parent Community Networking Coordinator, watched the school deteriorate over eight years as her five children went through its doors. She applauds the changes taking place even though none of her own children will benefit directly.

"Over the years, the paint was peeling, the buildings were cracking, the roof was leaking, jalousies were falling apart, and my oldest daughter complained about doors in the bathroom being broken and cubbies in the classroom being termite-eaten," said Kim.

"Now the majority of parents I spoke with love the new paint and the fact that everything is starting to look a lot newer. It's just one of the ways we want to change everybody's perception of our school.

"It's a fresh, new look and a whole new direction."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.