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Senators flag deteriorating school facilities, discuss capital funding and maintenance backlog
Summary
Reporters raised concerns about deteriorating rural school buildings and potential health and safety issues; senators said the Department of Education submits a ranked deferred-maintenance list (about $250 million) and the Legislature will decide how far down the list to fund in the capital budget.
During the Senate's weekly press availability, reporters asked senators about reporting on deteriorating conditions inside rural public school buildings and whether the Legislature will address health-and-safety concerns during the capital budget process.
Senator Sevin (questioning reporters' article) and Senator Stedman described the process: local schools submit maintenance requests to the Department of Education, which ranks projects by priority. Senators said the deferred-maintenance list totals about $250,000,000; the Legislature then decides how much money the capital budget will allocate and the department re-ranks the list each year.
Senators highlighted examples and process issues. Senator Stedman said Mount Edgecumbe High School (referred to as Edgecumbe in the briefing) is treated differently in the funding process because it is managed in a separate DOT maintenance schedule rather than with other K–12 schools, and he said it should be treated like other schools in the system. Senators said recent roof and HVAC work addressed some urgent problems but that the governor's proposed budget included limited maintenance funding: senators described the governor's maintenance requests as a "slim $50,000,000" for university and school maintenance and said that amount would be insufficient compared with needs.
Senators said they will examine the Department of Education's prioritized list during budget negotiations and consider mechanisms such as school bond debt reimbursement that historically have leveraged local funds for school work. No new capital appropriations were adopted during the briefing; senators said capital funding decisions will be made in the coming budget negotiations.
