Roofs Leaking at Local Schools

Some things you have to see for yourself to believe.
 
I recently took a tour of about a half dozen schools, mainly older facilities, in the Chapel Hill Carrboro school system.  Because the County Commissioners fund the school systems' budgets, it's important for me to see first hand what the parents, teachers, and school administrators are complaining about.  I took a similar tour of facilities in the Orange County School system a while back and wanted to assess the situation in the city schools.
 
Boy, am I glad I did.
 
Fortunately, it was a rainy day.  The rain provided "opportunities" to see the challenges students and teachers face in many of our older schools.  At two schools we visited, staff were using sand bags to keep water from flooding classrooms.  I was told that they have to put out sandbags every time it rains, otherwise water will enter the rooms.
 
And several schools had significant problems with leaking roofs.  Phillips Middle School had the most dramatic roof issues of the facilities I visited that day.  The roof over the intercom system was leaking, causing staff to wrap the intercom server in plastic and plop a garbage can on top to catch the rain.  And as the principal pointed out, the expense of replacing a ruined intercom systems would have been enormous.
 
But more troubling than the leak over the intercom system was the leak in the main hallway as you entered the school.  This is a high traffic area, and water was running onto the floor at a steady pace.  In what amounts to huge waste of staff resources, someone had to stand watch to make sure no one fell, to mop up water, and to ensure as safe a travel zone as possible under the circumstances.
 
And speaking of liability issues waiting to happen, the Phillip's principal reported that water had entered the area in which the fire alarm system is housed, and she'd been afraid all day that the fire alarm would short out.
 
These are just a few examples of what I saw, and unfortunately conditions are similar in the Orange County School district.  The challenge, of course, is where to find the money to make repairs at a time when the school district is faced with needing to build a new elementary school next year at a cost of $35 million and a new middle school in a couple of years at an estimated cost of $54 million.  Additionally, the parents and students at Carrboro High School are, rightly, requesting that the Arts wing be constructed as promised.
 
This is going to be a difficult budget year, as you all can imagine from reading about the recession in the papers.  However, these facility needs must be met somehow.  It's just going to take some creative thinking to get there, given our current circumstances. 

[Note: This was originally published on County Commissioner MIke Nelson's blog. I asked if he would mind republishing it on OP and he agreed. -Ed.]

Issues: 

Comments

Mike,I have to ask the questions:  why were the schools allowed to deteriorate to this point in the first place?  Have the school administrators been informing the BOCC of these problems on a regular basis and the BOCC has failed to fund the necessary repairs?  Since it sounds to me like you've just been made aware of these problems I have to wonder why they have not been publicized earlier.  Has the drive to obtain funding for new schools taken precedence over taking care of those we already have?  It sounds like someone has been asleep at the wheel.  Maybe it is we taxpayers for not asking more questions at budget time.

I wonder why the Chapel Hill – Carrboro School Districts have yet to deny a single development in Chapel Hill/Carrboro a CAPS (Certificate of Adequacy of Public School Facilities) as part of SAPFO (Schools Adequate Facilities Ordinance) since it was jointly approved by ToCH, TOC, and BOCC in 2002*.  How could our schools deteriorate to this point and this not be affecting the level of service (LOS) provided to students?  This ordinance was a tool that the schools were supposed to use to protect the quality of education for our youth.  However, it sounds like it not working based on Commissioner Nelson’s observations.  * this was according to School Board Member Mia Burroughs at the recent NRG meeting

There is a common misunderstanding to the way SAPFO works, people actually believe that it is intended to control growth unless adequate school facilities are available. In reality, it is intended to require that schools are built in order to keep up with the demand created by new housing.

 

SAPFO does not control (limit) housing development, it forces school construction (and higher taxes).

Gotta wonder how such water leaks are impacting the health of students and staff. FPG is one of the schools with water issues and I know a lot of kids who suffer severe allergy problems while at school.UNC constantly monitors the major systems within each building. Certain systems, like roofs and electrical wiring, have a fixed lifespan. When that lifespan comes to an end, the state expects the system to be replaced. If there is a problem before the expected end-of-life for the system, it may or may not be repaired properly. Does the county have something similar in place for its facilities? If so, is the problem that that repair and renovation fund is being redirected to other purposes or that the budget allocation for R&R is simply too low?

George, every year the same budget game is played by the CHCCS: they ask for their needs and wants and produce sticker shock in even the most seasoned veteran Commissioner. The schools and the commissioners then dance around public hearings and work sessions galore to move the impossible to the possible (a tax rate that does not blow up and sink the Orange County property owner). The money (and the % of the total County budget devoted to schools) goes up and the recipients stare at a list of their needs and want to trim, and the leaking roof is deferred to another round of the game. The schools are ungrateful, the commissioners are frustrated, the school parents (having stormed the hearings with pleas for endless tax increases to keep junior or princess in his/her gifted program) are baffled, and the property tax owner is blessed with the usual three digit boost in the tab.The schools decide what they do with their operating budget. They are robbing Peter to pay Paul. They can - yawn - pay for dripping water or they can continue/patch/enhance - yea - their classroom programs/services.Mike, my conscientious and committed friend, stay away from school tours. It's a trap and will do little to ease the pain of decisions you have to make for all of us. The schools can fix their leaks, or not.Many have long suggested the need to enhance our tax base, with taxpayers other than home owners. Now we can't just wave our wands and that will happen. I predict more threatened intercom systems. Oh yes, I forgot. Carrboro High School parents want their Art wing. Another building to leak in its time. 

.....in the following paragraph is "needs". "This is going to be a difficult budget year, as you all can imagine from reading about the recession in the papers. However, these facility needs must be met somehow. It's just going to take some creative thinking to get there, given our current circumstances."Why is there a "need" to.... "build a new elementary school at a cost of $35 million and a new middle school in a couple of years at an estimated cost of $54 million"? I am guessing if Mike mentioned them it has been discussed, can anyone provide a pointer to relevant records?Given the fact of recession and the "difficult" budget year, why is there a "promise" to build an Arts wing at Carrboro High School that can even compete on the same budget page with leaking roofs?Another political lightning rod; isn't it time to consider merging the county an municipal school systems? Basic economics suggest that there are economic reasons to do so.

As I understand it, SAPFO stipulates that each school can only support an enrollment of X% larger than building design. So when new development is proposed in an area, the schools must provide a certificate saying they have the seats available. If they don't have the seats available, development cannot proceed--or the county has to build a new school. What I would love to understand is why someone, from the school system or the BOCC, just didn't say we can't support new development in the Eubanks Road area because we can't build a new school until we can fix the leaking roofs and handle the mold remediation in our existing facilities. SAPFO isn't working!

DianeBrilliant. I have been asking that question since I moved here in 1991 and my daughter's kindergarten class had 29 students ( I was told before enrollment that the school was committed to no more than  21 in a class).When I visited the mayor and questioned where the students would attend school, as I saw many new houses being built, I was told that class size was not the of responsibility of the town. While I guess that was technically correct it did not address the issue of growth and the lack of foresight for what that growth means for the community. Why are we continuing to approve residential subdivisions that we cannot support with adequate infrastructure and schools? Given the economic conditions we are in it seems that the need for school maintenance might make us candidates for promised federal funds. I say this somewhat reluctantly as it seems that we could have managed resources to avoid  the current situation.

Take a look at the CIP for 2004-2014 for the CHCCS. The spreadsheet begins on p4. They may have updated this but it doesn't appear on the Facilities/Maintenance Department web page. I suspect it's a rarity for any CIP to be funded as desired, and it appears that it will only get worse.The Superintendents Budget Message for 2008-09 indicates that the District received over $1.5 million from OC for the recurring capital budget.

If water is getting in, heat and coolness is leaking out.(A question: why does Superintendent Pedersen continue to get big raises when fundamental problems like this are hidden in plain sight?)  

I for one can't hardly take another property tax increase. Beween the rate rising & the value skyrocketing it's getting crazy. I knew this would happen when the transfer tax didn't go through. Also, there is a difference between NEEDS and WANTS. Shouldn't fund the "wants" until the "needs" are met.

 

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