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Panel says new study of school may be needed

The committee studying the problems at Homosassa Elementary says issues remain unresolved.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published February 9, 2005

INVERNESS - The Blue Ribbon Committee that is studying the construction problems at Homosassa Elementary School has struggled with - and is not sure it will be able to answer - the questions that the School Board has asked about the rebar reinforcement that was missing from the school's new buildings.

That could mean that the committee will ultimately ask the school district to conduct one more study of the project after its work is done, the committee's chairman told the board on Tuesday.

"We may recommend to the board an in-depth audit be performed on this" and other elements of the project, committee Chairman Donald Macdonald said. He noted there were several issues the committee had found some confusion with; those areas also might require yet another look from an outside authority.

Macdonald said the committee never was given the authority to conduct a real investigation and "in fact, we never had the authority to do anything."

The panel will continue finishing its final report at 3 p.m. today when members meet for the first time at the school cafeteria, which opened to students two weeks ago. The final Blue Ribbon report is expected by the board in March; the board will follow with a workshop and discussion with committee members on March 29.

Also during Tuesday's meeting, the board got an update on the repairs still continuing at the other problem building at Homosassa Elementary: the new media center.

As he has in the past, the engineer on the project, Ted Williamson, continued to voice concerns that builder R.E. Graham would need to keep staffing levels up to meet his schedule.

Williamson has had to warn Graham that he has passed his time to complete the last minor problems in the cafeteria. He plans to issue another warning, which is required by contract, if those small repairs are not done by the end of this week. If they still are not done by next week, the district can do the work itself and deduct that cost from the contract, Williamson said.

Finishing those small items would have been sped up if more workers had been on site, Williamson said.

Lance Dombrowski, the representative of Rimkus Consulting Group, which is the district's "third set of eyes" on the project, also voiced concern about Graham's staffing levels.

He said that even though Graham has submitted a new schedule, which calls for completion of the media center in early March, only about eight workers were on site on a daily basis. Dombrowski thinks the project could use about 20.

Dombrowski said Graham was not opposed to having Dombrowski find more workers to fill out the crews, but he said it was not the correct time to talk about whether the district would bring in new workers. Dombrowski also said that, despite the more optimistic completion schedule, actual work on the scene was mixed.

"He (Graham) hits some milestones. He misses others," Dombrowski said. "It's kind of up and down on a daily basis."

Dombrowski said he tried to drive that point home to Graham at last week's construction meeting, when the discussion turned to getting the media center done more quickly than originally projected.

"We are not ahead of schedule. We are actually months behind schedule," Dombrowski said he emphasized. "Still, they are trying."

Board member Lou Miele bristled at that.

With the manpower at perhaps half of what it should be, "to me that doesn't show a great effort," Miele said. "Let's stop saying that they're trying."

In other action Tuesday:

The board approved a recommendation to build the county's 11th elementary school on a 120-acre parcel the school district is currently purchasing in Citrus Springs across from Citrus Springs Middle School.

Members of the Long Range Planning Committee had recommended the site because of the tremendous growth in that area. A new elementary school is recommended in the district's five-year capital plan.

Executive director of support services James Hughes said the school could be designed and built in about 21/2 years.

The district began the process of buying the acreage at $6,500 per acre two years ago with plans to turn the site into the location of Citrus County's fourth high school at some point. School officials hope to close on the site purchase at the end of next month.

The board accepted the new teacher contract for 2004-05 and the accompanying pay raise package, which will provide raises of $600 for teachers still moving through the pay scale and $800 for those at the top of the scale.

The raises are retroactive to July 1.

The contract was strongly supported by teachers. They voted 590 in favor and 117 opposed.

Leaders of the Citrus County Education Association, which bargains the contract for teachers, said they look forward to getting back to the bargaining table next month to begin talks for the 2005-06 school year.

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 9, 2005, 00:44:18]