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Hurricane Katrina

Katrina threatens schools' growth

The school district fears a drain on materials and spike in construction costs caused by the storm could delay building.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published September 20, 2005

Hurricane Katrina spared Central Florida its massive destruction. But early signs suggest K-12 students will feel its effects for years.

Pasco County school officials on Monday said national construction supply shortages are threatening to delay the district's aggressive building program, one that calls for the opening of seven schools by the 2006-07 school year and 21 total by 2009.

Already, Rinker Materials, a leading Florida supplier of drywall, sent a letter to customers - including the Pasco and Hillsborough school districts - warning that distribution will be limited due to effects of the hurricane on supplies. Drywall already was in tight supply pre-Katrina, but two Louisiana drywall manufacturers were damaged by the storm, further affecting supply and price, a Rinker official said.

"We foresee it being very tight for a very long time," said Ken Noland, Rinker's regional manager in Odessa. The company in the past was able to meet supply on demand. Now, it's a week behind in deliveries, he said.

Assistant school superintendent Ray Gadd said the Rinker memo was the first tangible evidence of the construction struggles to come.

"It's got us worried," he said. "It's not going to be a materials and supplies shortage; it's going to be a labor shortage too."

It's too soon to say what, if any, delays might occur. Gadd said he wasn't prepared to contemplate a return to double sessions for the already overcrowded 60,000-student district, even if the worst-case occurs.

"Right now we're not anticipating anything that severe," Gadd said of the double-sessions scenario, which calls for two schools to attend class in the same school building in shifts.

In Hillsborough, which plans to build 21 new schools in the next five years, chief facilities director Cathy Valdes said Hurricane Katrina is only one more factor in a growing list of pressures on school construction.

Between tremendous population growth, a class-size reduction law that calls for districts to build more classrooms, escalating construction costs and a new law that requires school vendors to conduct pricey criminal background checks on their employees, school districts are struggling to figure out how they are going to catch up.

"It's kind of like there are so many factors working against school construction at this point in time that it has to be viewed holistically," Valdes said. "It's not only Katrina. Before Katrina there was escalating construction costs."

Prices for concrete, steel, insulation and any petroleum products all are on the rise. Cement prices rose by between 12 and 30 percent in some regions in the past year. And as the construction industry prepares for reconstruction efforts in the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast, demand and prices are only expected to go higher.

"Once they get New Orleans drained, most of the supplies destined for Florida are going to be headed to New Orleans," said John Petrashek, director of new construction for Pasco County schools. "The construction market is out of the control of the School Board. ... We literally are at the mercy of the construction industry market."

School construction has long lagged behind Florida's residential building boom. Even if the rising prices and building materials shortage slows down suburban and exurban sprawl, experts expect the need for new schools will not subside.

Bob Abberger, head of Florida development for commercial real estate giant Trammell Crow, speculated that the burden of funding new school construction during increasingly tight economic times will fall to local government officials and, eventually, taxpayers.

"Cities and counties in this state are going to have to find a way to pass this cost through, and that's going to mean impact fees or taxes," he said. "It's unfortunate that now that there's a huge focus on catching up (in school construction) that we now have to deal with the cost shock that could cause another setback."

--Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.

[Last modified September 20, 2005, 04:36:42]