School Board Response to Unsatisfactory Building Conditions in Journal News Survey

In a recent Journal News article, it detailed the Journal News analysis of the 2010-11 building conditions of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam’s 54 school districts. The analysis survey based its findings off of building conditions required by the state.

Of the 30 school buildings in Rockland that received ‘unsatisfactory’ ratings in this survey, two Nanuet School District buildings were included: Nanuet High School and George Miller Elementary.

According to the survey, Nanuet HS’ school repairs would cost $5.5 million and Miller’s repairs would cost 2.4 million. The survey said that the ‘unsatisfactory’ issues with these two buildings were:

NHS:

• electrical distribution
• pavement
• sidewalks
• interior doors
• wood flooring

Miller:

• pavement
• interior doors
• communications systems
• carpet

At last night’s Board of Education meeting, the board responded to the ‘unsatisfactory’ ratings. The board was concerned with the public's misinterpretation of the map in the article because the survey did not take into account that some of the items that made those school buildings unsatisfactory were in the process of being repaired and that there was a change in the rules on what was unsatisfactory and what was satisfactory.

“The building condition survey was actually done between August 2010 and January 2011,” said Rudy Villanyi, the facilities director. “The buildings are surveyed on about 105 different categories. For instance, at the Miller School, there were four categories that received a rating beyond satisfactory. Because of that unsatisfactory rating, the building got an unsatisfactory rating.”

In-Progress Projects

Villanyi said that some of the unsatisfactory items were on the checklist of things being done or items that will be done.

“In the meantime, the communications stuff has already been taken care of, we’ve upgraded things in the communications with the telephone systems and such so that’s actually going to come off. The interior doors, that project is in progress now,” said Villanyi.

“This article, if you didn’t know, you would perhaps think that it was the state inspectors who came down and went through all the schools and then determined that certain schools were unsatisfactory,” said Mark McNeill, superintendent. “I really appreciate our architects who work for the board and the district … Every five years, they help us complete a 5-year facilities plan. And on an annual basis, they give us a recommended checklist of what items ought to be done in each building in which year over the five years. That information is for the board to look at the status of each of the buildings.”

Board Member Charleen Caulk asked which sidewalks were the survey referring to.

“Some of the concrete sidewalks in front of the high school, some of the ones at Miller,” said Villanyi. “We just did sections of the sidewalks in front of Highview and we just finished the sidewalks in front of Miller. We put in a new ramp there to get rid of the metal ramp that was there. Took out sections of the sidewalk and did the concrete there.”

“We’re doing some patching in front of the high school,” said Villanyi. “The work is ongoing but at the time of the inspection … the actual form doesn’t take into consideration that something might be in progress such as the interior doors. It’s either bad or it’s good.”

Beyond Useful Life, but Still Useful

“The other item was asphalt. In the parking and playground areas, these items have reached the end of their useful life and so they’re considered unsatisfactory,” said Villanyi. “Even though you’ve patched the cracks and seal coated things, basically, it’s at the point where, yes, you can keep patching it and they can still play on or play on, but it should really be looked at to get milled up and replaced.”

“The policy used to be that if something was beyond its useful life that deemed it unsatisfactory by definition, when in fact you could still be using (that thing) perfectly fine,” said Phil Sions, assistant superintendent of business. “In fact we were actually saving taxpayers money by not spending more since it was perfectly adequate. They changed the policy and put it on the website but didn’t notify all the players involved, they didn’t tell the facilities director, they didn’t tell the architects and so the architects were working by the old rules. Had they had known this, it would not have been unsatisfactory. The reason it can be satisfactory and it wouldn’t be deceptive is because they revised the plan.”

“Clarkstown North is in dire need of repairs, yet that report (shows that North is satisfactory),” said President Anne Byrne.

“So if you have something that says its life span is 20 years, but it’s working perfectly fine because we’ve maintained it well, that would give you an unsatisfactory rating?” Byrne asked.

“Yes, just because it’s at the end of its useful life makes it unsatisfactory,” answered Villanyi. “At the high school, the main electrical switch gear … is 45 or 48 years old. It’s past its useful life, but it works fine. It gets an unsatisfactory rating so the building gets an unsatisfactory rating.”

“And our buildings on average are the oldest in the county,” said Board Vice President Ron Hansen.

“We’re at 62 or 63 years old,” estimated Villanyi on the buildings’ age.

Priorities

One of the items on the survey’s list was ‘carpet’. In the detailed reports attached to this article, it reads that the “copy room carpet requires replacement.”

“A copy room rug is not a priority,” said Mark McNeill.

“One architect in Orangetown may feel like something is satisfactory and our architect may say that the same thing is unsatisfactory,” said Board Member Ed Dingman. “(We’re) unsatisfactory over a copy room rug?” he asked rhetorically.

Moving Forward

“When (the Journal News reporter) did their report, did they talk to you or someone with the school facilities?” asked Caulk. Villanyi replied, No.

Rudy uses the 5-year facilities plan and the building condition survey to determine his budgeting needs.

“The electrical switch plan is one of the things I’m going to bring into the budget,” he said.

“The only response we can make is to make the decision that we’re going to send up a revised form and information and have the building designated satisfactory,” said McNeill.

“I think it’s as much a reflection on our state’s concern on education as on us because we can only do so much with the funding we get and now we have the tax cap,” said Board Member Sarah Chauncey. “We don’t want to have our buildings be in this state.”

“The point of all this is that the board is very proud that they have this information and on an annual basis they’ve been funding maintenance projects to the extent that this is really a positive for us,” said McNeill. “Our architects are saying, ‘we want you to know that this is our impression of these particular issues within each of these buildings.’ The architect could have ignored all that and called all those items satisfactory.”