Riley County Commission directs staff to begin formal process to opt out of county school inspections; approves contracts, plats and equipment purchases

Riley County commissioners on Nov. 19 voted to direct staff to begin the formal process needed to opt the county out of performing annual school inspections and approved several consent-agenda items including professional services agreements, plats and equipment purchases.

Planning and development staff told the commission the county’s school inspections overlap with inspections already done by state and other agencies and that the state newly authorized counties to opt out of performing those inspections. “So I’m here to recommend we basically opt out doing school inspections,” the Planning and Development Director said during the meeting, summarizing staff’s recommendation and the rationale.

Staff and commissioners described the inspections the county performs as largely redundant with work by the Kansas Department of Agriculture (food service), the fire marshal (fire systems and life-safety), building officials (structure and code compliance), elevator inspectors and other certified inspectors. The planning director also noted the county receives no state funding for school inspections, the county does not charge schools fees for the inspections, and county inspectors do not hold the specialized certifications many aspects of the checklist would require.

The commission was presented a process to implement…