School maintenance under the microscope in New London

New London - Within 18 months, the school district will have opened three new school buildings worth $100 million, according to the superintendent of schools. Yet the district has no preventive maintenance plan for its existing buildings and no money for long-term maintenance.

For some, now that the city is facing the possibility of building a new high school or renovating the existing one, the issue has taken on new urgency.

"If we have property and we invest a lot of money in it, which we do, we should maintain it," said Superintendent of Schools Nicholas A. Fischer.

The school district's maintenance budget this fiscal year totals $500,000, Fischer said. School officials have recommended replacing the high school's roof this year, at an estimated cost of $750,000.

Fischer said the district should be spending $2 per square foot per year on preventive maintenance for the 660,000 square feet of school buildings it currently has.

"According to that calculation, we should be spending $1,320,000 a year on preventative maintenance, and we're not doing it," Fischer said. "A plan really means not what you outline on paper, it means budgeting for what you want to do. In the budget process, when it comes down to where we're going to pull money from, maintenance is one of the first line items to be cut."

Fischer said he's looking at ways to invest in maintenance at the new Jennings, Winthrop and Nathan Hale schools, as well as at the high school. One way to help pay the maintenance costs is for the city to borrow money, he said.

"If the problem with the city is that we're building buildings but have no plans to take care of them, what we should be looking at is including the cost of maintaining that building for 25 years," City Council President Michael Passero said. "It's a sustainability plan. You're fooling yourself if you're going to build a building and make no provisions to maintain it. That's got to be part of the costs."

School officials had presented the City Council with three options for the high school: renovate the current building as new; demolish and build a new high school; or renovate to meet mandated requirements, including complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The high school has failed, since 1988, to address key building issues and meet ADA requirements, according to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which provides accreditation services. If the school continues to be in violation of ADA requirements, it risks its federal grants, Assistant Superintendent Christine Carver said during the City Council meeting Monday.

The council voted at that meeting to place the issue in the hands of its Education, Parks and Recreation Committee, which is expected to recommend one of the three options to the full council by the end of March, Passero said.

The school district has estimated that with a 67.7 percent reimbursement from the state for the construction of a new school - which could change depending on the city's bond rating - the cost to taxpayers would be $23.65 a year over a 20-year period, about 7 cents a day.

According to numbers presented to the council, a new high school could cost $83 million.

Passero said Tuesday that the council's ultimate decision about the high school will be only as good as the information it's given. "There are question marks about (state) reimbursement rates, the total costs of the project for all three options, and then there's the whole debate on what the burden will be on the tax rate," he said. "There's a lot of skepticism about the $23.65 a year to the average taxpayer."

The costs have changed "so much" since the previous council looked at the same issue in August, Passero said..

Fischer said the school district plans to work with the City Council to ensure the accuracy of the costs as the process moves forward.

j.hanckel@theday.com