O.C. Schools Struggling to Keep Up With Upkeep

By TINA NGUYEN

Aug. 31, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Leaks in the roof at Costa Mesa’s Whittier Elementary School are so bad that the water-damaged, stained ceiling tiles in Room 12 are caving in. The entire school urgently needs new roofing, administrators say, but the district does not have the money.

Repair funds are hard to come by, especially since the push began last year to cap classes at 20 students in primary grades. The popular program, widely touted as an education dream come true, is creating a statewide facilities nightmare.

As school district officials scramble to find extra space by partitioning classrooms and buying portable units, long-overdue building repairs have been pushed far down on the spending list.

“Class size is a super-high priority, and it’s a valuable program,” said Mike Fine, chief financial officer at Newport-Mesa Unified School District, which includes Whittier. “But if a roof goes bad, so does the paint, so does the floor, the equipment and technology, and then we have some serious safety issues.”

Across the state, deteriorating schools need an estimated $2.6 billion in deferred maintenance--repairs and upkeep projects that have been postponed for lack of money.

Administrators say that is a conservative figure based on five-year plans that districts send to the state when applying for funds. Most districts report only their worst problems, officials say, because they know state resources are scarce.

Despite the mammoth needs, the state earmarked only $135 million this year for deferred maintenance. That was a $50-million boost from last year’s allocation and the first funding increase in 11 years.

In Orange County, an additional $27 million from the bankruptcy settlement with Merrill Lynch & Co. will help 32 local school and college districts. Some districts said they plan to use their share of that money for deferred maintenance.

But those amounts are far less than the $200 million needed annually in the next 10 years to meet growing school repair needs across the county, legislative analysts said in a recent report.

Statewide, schools desperately need more than $6 billion for deferred maintenance over the next 10 years, according to a special facilities report by the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, a Sacramento-based clearinghouse.

Fully 87% of California’s schools need major repairs and maintenance, making them among the worst in the nation, the C.A.S.H. report stated. Also, 55% of the state’s schools were built more than 30 years ago, another factor in their deterioration.

The Fullerton School District, one of Orange County’s older districts, wants to make basic improvements such as adding air-conditioning units and upgrading fire alarm systems.

But the district’s backlog of more than $6 million in deferred maintenance has left most of its elementary schools with antiquated electrical systems that cannot accommodate new computers.

“The increase in technology . . . is straining our buildings,” said Patricia Godfrey, Fullerton’s assistant superintendent of business. “We have a great need to increase the power at our schools. We’re behind the curve.”

Newport-Mesa Unified would face a $14-million tab if all needed repairs were made. But last year, administrators could afford only $800,000 worth of work. Though the state in theory covers half of deferred maintenance costs, it funded just 14% of Newport-Mesa’s request.

Amid chronic funding shortages, many districts have managed by reaching deeper into their own pockets to pay for some projects and putting off others indefinitely. By cutting corners, administrators have made superficial repairs to crumbling school buildings.

Eric Jetta, maintenance director for Newport-Mesa, said, “We have to resort to a lot of Band-Aid work. We never really remedy our problems. We do just enough to keep our schools going and help make the environment safe.”

At Whittier Elementary, for instance, only 60% of the 30-year-old electrical system still works. The inefficient wiring runs up electric bills and is so outdated that finding replacement parts is often impossible.

The once-aqua carpeting in Room 28 is now a dingy brown and reeks of mildew. Duct tape is used to patch newer pieces of carpeting to the 10-year-old floor covering. In another classroom, the window glass is so old and scratched that it is almost opaque. And an old heater in another room spewed insect particles before it finally broke down.

Experts say such decay hinders learning. “Studies have shown that children’s performance declines under deteriorating classroom conditions,” said Sandy Silberstein, a C.A.S.H. researcher.

Educators have been telling state officials for more than a decade that deferred maintenance rapidly is becoming a crisis situation. “For every $1 not invested, the system falls another $620 behind,” a 1995 federal report on school conditions said.

The issue finally caught state legislators’ attention earlier this year, in part because the class-size reduction program raised so many concerns about buildings and space.

“A lot of facilities issues came up,” said Colin Miller, a budget analyst for the state department of finance. “Although deferred maintenance was a high priority this year, yes, class size did contribute to the increased funding.”

Unless the state continues to keep a healthy budget for deferred maintenance, school officials fear that the class-size program could result in additional disrepair. Adding classrooms means more deferred maintenance in the long run, they said.

Furthermore, portable classrooms, a common solution for creating space, are more expensive to maintain, experts said.

Designed for temporary use, portables have less-efficient air-conditioning systems than permanent structures and are not constructed as soundly, so roofs are more likely to leak and paint to peel.

“Maintenance has never had the priority it that it needs,” said Don Stabler, assistant superintendent of business for Santa Ana Unified School District. “If we don’t address it properly, we end up paying for more.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Repair Work

Here are the estimated total amounts that Orange County school districts need in the next five school years to fix existing problems. Estimates not available for all districts:

District: Costs

Anaheim Union High: $18,182,100

Brea Olinda Unified: 1,905,200 Buena Park: 538,500

Capistrano Unified: 7,327,100

Centralia: 4,366,700

Fountain Valley: 7,500,000

Fullerton: 6,091,300

Fullerton Joint Union High: 13,689,000

Garden Grove Unified: 15,946,600

Huntington Beach Union High: 829,100

Irvine Unified: 11,474,800

La Habra City: 2,301,600