Critical school repair and maintenance projects will be addressed but general sprucing up of classrooms statewide — from repainting buildings to replacing worn-out white boards — will have to wait due to budget constraints, the state Department of Education said.

Lower-than-expected tax revenues have forced the state to be more cautious in spending, prompting education officials to place more of an emphasis on urgent needs rather than nice-to-have repairs, they said.

At Farrington High School, Principal Catherine Payne said classroom renovations — from repainting of doors to fixing cracks in the wall — will likely be on hold for a while.

But she doesn't mind, since a project to fix a gaping hole in the main building's roof remains on track.

"My major concern over many years has been to get the leaks in our roof fixed. That impacts instruction in very significant ways when you have to have barrels sitting around your classroom to catch the water," Payne said. "I wouldn't even allow renovations until the roofs are fixed."

The DOE won't be getting about $110 million of $235 million set aside by the Legislature over the past two years for general classroom renovation and school building improvements. At a meeting of the state Board of Education last week, the board officially put on hold upgrades at more than 50 aging schools.

But bond money for larger repair and maintenance projects that total more than $150 million — from a new gymnasium at Pahoa High and Intermediate School to the construction of the new 'Ewa Makai Elementary School — is still coming.

"The classroom renovations can wait. This isn't a disaster," said Randy Moore, DOE assistant superintendent. "From our perspective, we can't spend what the state doesn't have. We have to sit down and ask, given the resources we have, how do we best spend it? What's in the best interest of the students and the taxpayers?"

$235 MILLION SET ASIDE

Two years ago, the Legislature approved $160 million to pay for classroom renovations at 96 schools across the state, in what was expected to finish the ongoing six-year effort to renovate almost 200 of the state's oldest schools. Then, last session, lawmakers approved $75 million to pay for building improvements.

At that time, education officials celebrated the cash infusion, saying that the money was to help reduce the DOE's repair and maintenance backlog, estimated at $341 million.

However, lower tax revenues have prompted the state to be more cautious with spending, holding back a total of $110 million of the $235 million originally appropriated by the Legislature.

"We will need the cash for our ongoing operations," said Georgina Kawamura, state budget and finance director. "We can't be using it for capital improvement projects."

The state budget was based on a 6 percent growth projection by the Council on Revenues back in March, but actual tax collection in the last fiscal year was only 3.4 percent more than the previous year, she said.

"It's obviously a challenge for us," Moore said. "In the past few years, the Legislature has been generous in funding repair and maintenance needs, but we're still not where we should be."

The state's school repair-and-maintenance backlog reached more than $525 million over the past several years but has slowly been trimmed to about $341 million. The DOE is expected to release an updated backlog estimate in September, Moore said.

PERHAPS LATER

Education officials are expected to meet with the Department of Budget and Finance again in December, when the state will have updated tax revenue projections.

"They're going to determine how much more, if any, they could let us have," Moore said.

High-priority projects that are still scheduled include a new cafeteria at Kilauea Elementary School and expansion of a library at Pearl City Elementary School.

Principals at schools said they understand minor work is going to be on hold.

At Salt Lake Elementary School, Principal Duwayne Abe said the 36-year-old campus has many places that are a little worn out, including peeling paint on doors and walls and old chalkboards.

"The condition (of the buildings) is fair to good. There are no real safety issues or major problems," Abe said. "It would have been nice, but it isn't something that needs to be done immediately."

Sue Alivado, principal of Pa'ia Elementary School on Maui, said she was disappointed when she found out that schoolwide renovations on her campus are no longer scheduled. But she acknowledged the school would still make do.

Her disappointment grew, however, when she learned that the $5 million for the reconstruction of the school's cafeteria was on hold.

The school's original cafeteria was destroyed in a fire in December 2005. Since then, the school has been making do using a makeshift dining room and bringing in hot meals from neighboring Kalama Intermediate School, she said.

"We were originally slated for our schoolwide renovation this year, and we were hoping to reallocate those funds to the cafeteria project," Alivado said. "If they can't do either of them, we're back to square one."

Alivado said she should have a more definite answer about whether the cafeteria project will go forward in December. Most likely, she said, the school will continue to live with its existing dining room.

"If we can't get that done, I'd at least like them to help us work on the plumbing system in our dining room," she said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.