Multitude of maintenance problems at SBHS
Broken light fixtures hung from the ceiling, some ready to fall
into dripping showers. Ragged electrical plugs dotted wall sockets
while ceiling panels hung loose above teenagers’ heads. A
refrigerator leaked, with corrosion along its bottom and mold grew
in the moist condensation forming inside it.
Multitude of maintenance problems at SBHS
Broken light fixtures hung from the ceiling, some ready to fall into dripping showers. Ragged electrical plugs dotted wall sockets while ceiling panels hung loose above teenagers’ heads. A refrigerator leaked, with corrosion along its bottom and mold grew in the moist condensation forming inside it.
These sights are not from a dilapidated house in a rundown neighborhood, but are images described in a recently released Grand Jury report on the San Benito High School facilities based on a tour in late 2005 and a follow-up visit on February 28.
Since the first visit by the jury, Finance and Operations Director Jim Koenig has been working closely with maintenance staff to address the concerns of the jurors.
“I saw the locker room under the stadium for the first time with them,” Koenig said, who took on the finance and operations director position in August 2005. “I was not aware of the extent of some of these problems.”
The Grand Jury started their investigation of the high school facilities when jurors received a complaint from a parent early in the year. Several members of the Grand Jury with children or relatives attending San Benito High also had concerns about the upkeep and cleanliness of the school, according to a Grand Jury report issued April 19.
“It was a parent who filed the complaint,” said John Sitton, the 2005-2006 jury foreperson. “They named two or three areas [of concern] and when we went in, we looked at more than two or three.”
Many of the concerns of the Grand Jury are valid, Koenig said.
“When the Grand Jury comes through, it puts a different set of eyes on it and brings it home to you,” Koenig said.
While an expansion project slated for 2007 will address many of the concerns of the Grand Jury in the long run, they found many items that needed more immediate attention, such as sanitation in locker rooms and the need to repair broken tiles.
“Bathrooms and locker rooms are a constant source of attention and complaints in the school facilities business,” Koenig said. “They require a lot of attention. They get a lot of use and abuse so we were aware of some of the problems.”
In one girls’ locker room, recently painted bathroom stall doors are already carved with the names of boys and other comments, just a week after the paint has dried.
Since the jury’s visit, the custodial staff has been using a bathroom checklist to keep track of cleanings, according to Slater.
The maintenance department had already made plans to address some of the concerns of the Grand Jury well before the jury visited the campus, such as replacing furnaces that were missing covers or were disconnected.
“Two or three months ago, we installed new furnaces,” Koenig said. “The Board [of Trustees] approved money for it last summer.”
Other recent repairs include replacing missing vent covers along the outside of classrooms where skunks used to crawl under the buildings, fixing leaky roofs and replacing damaged ceiling tiles.
Koenig acknowledged that the campus still needs a lot of work, but said plans are going into effect to bring the campus up to standards. In terms of long-term projects, the school board will allow most summer school classes to take place on the South Campus to give the maintenance staff room and time to complete projects on the Main Campus.
“We usually have two weeks between the end of [summer] school and when school is coming back on,” said Steve Greer, a maintenance supervisor. “With the full summer, we have a better opportunity to meet the needs.”
During the 2007 summer school sessions, students will be centered at the main campus to allow for an expansion project that will include a new Life Skills Center, a multipurpose/media center, an expanded auto shop and a physical education facility, resolving many of the concerns the jurors had about parts of the campus. The facilities deemed to be in the most disarray included the sports medicine classrooms, Life Skills classrooms and locker rooms.
“We know we had some improvements needed,” said Jean Burns Slater, superintendent for the San Benito High School District. “We’ve had some facility plans drawn up. We had one for the wrestling room, life skills, the auto shop and the library/media center.”
Money can be an issue in getting long-term projects, such as repairing the ventilation system in the wrestling room on campus, off the ground.
“One of our goals it to maximize our money,” Slater said. “We have to make really careful decisions with limited funds on our buildings.”
As the school staff continues to work on maintenance, the school district has until mid-July to respond to the most immediate concerns of the Grand Jury, which include fire and safety hazards, as well as sanitation. San Benito High School, the City of Hollister Fire Marshall, the California Department of Forestry and the San Benito County Health Department all received copies of the Grand Jury report April 19.
“Our job is to see if the system works right,” Sitton said. “We never name names, although we will take the titled of people we interview. The goal is to try to improve the system, not blame individuals.”
The Grand Jury has the right to further inspect the campus in the future.
“We’ve made improvements,” Koenig said. “There are still things that need to be addressed, but we’ve got resources. We’ve got money. We’ve got time.”
Grand Jury reports can be viewed on-line at www.sanbenitocountygrandjury.org. Complaints can be filed by downloading a form on the Web site or by requesting a form at the San Benito County Courthouse. Anonymous complaints are not accepted.
