Portables code long overdue

[Guest guest]

Portables code long overdue

After months of delay, school officials are less optimistic that the state

will help them get rid of portables.

By LINDA CHION-KENNEY

published January 10, 1999

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----

TAMPA -- State education officials have written new standards that would

render nearly every one of Florida's 40,000 portable classrooms obsolete.

But the standards, which by law were supposed to go into effect six months

ago, are in limbo, still awaiting release. And that is hindering the efforts

of local school districts such as Hillsborough to reverse their long

dependence on portables.

The state is realizing such an effort could be a financial nightmare, one

official says. " It would have been a political disaster to release the

standards, " said Dwight Holmes, a Tampa architect who was appointed to the

SMART Schools Clearinghouse, the agency created in 1997 to oversee

construction plans.

" If the Department of Education had published the recommendations they

drafted back last year, in anticipation of meeting their July 1 deadline,

that would have been the conclusion, that you have 1.2-million students

being housed in unsafe facilities, and every school official and legislator

in the state would have caught hell from their constituencies. "

As it is, Hillsborough school officials are fuming because they say their

plans to eliminate 1,872 portable classrooms by 2003 have been blocked by

Spessard Boatright, executive director of the clearinghouse, who works for

the state Department of Management Services.

The Legislature's special session on education in 1997 produced $2.7-billion

for construction. The package included $600-million for school districts

that build frugally and raise every local cent possible but still need more

classroom space.

Boatright rejected Hillsborough's application for $119-million of the

so-called Effort Index Grants because the county planned to use the money to

reduce the number of portable classrooms, and he could not validate that

they were unsatisfactory. It would be great to get rid of portables, " but

the truth is, they're out there and they're going to be out there, "

Boatright said. " I don't see where the state has the money to replace

portables. "

The lack of standards for portable classrooms hurt Hillsborough's chances of

getting extra state funding, Boatright conceded.

Holmes called that a distressing Catch-22. " That's the politics of it, "

Holmes said. " But I didn't like it. And I don't think there's a single

member of the clearinghouse that appreciates or enjoys having to deal with

this. "

In all, 11 school districts applied for $1.5-billion worth of the grants,

but Boatright's initial review reduced that need to $555-million. Only Clay,

Dade, Hendry and Madison counties remained after Boatright's December

assessment, with Dade accounting for $521-million of the adjusted total.

" But I don't think we're going to get a dime, " said , Dade's

chief facilities officer. " If I were in Hillsborough County and Dade got

most of the money, I'd raise hell ... "

Boatright says Hillsborough opted to remove portables, while Dade held on to

all of theirs. That shows Dade's need is greater, he said.

But Jim Hamilton, Hillsborough's assistant superintendent of operations,

said Boatright is misinterpreting state law in saying the Legislature did

not intend to fund a wide-scale closing of portables. The law required that

portables be removed by July 1, 2003, if they are at least 20 years old and

in use during the 1998-99 school year. That alone would force Hillsborough

to remove about 700 of its 1,872 portables. Hamilton said the law also

prohibited portables that don't meet standards from being used as classrooms

after July 1, 2001.

Suzanne Marshall, who is writing the standards for the state Department of

Education, said they have been delayed to help portable manufacturers gear

up for the new rules, " so that we don't leave industry unable to do

business. "

" You can't rush into something like this, " she said. " This has a big effect

on a lot of people, and we just want to get it right. "

The Hillsborough school district built its own portables.

Marshall said the standards, as now written, require portables to have

non-combustible construction and to contain the same wiring and computer

technologies available to children in the main building. Portables would

have to be connected to the main school by covered walkways and be

accessible to the disabled. And they could be required to withstand winds of

up to 130 mph, up from the current 110 mph.

Marshall said the new standards will be released soon. But that's not soon

enough for local school officials, who wonder about legislative claims of

having solved the school construction crisis.

The crux of the problem is evident in a Sept. 15 memo to school officials

from state Rep. Wise, chairman of the Academic Excellence Council.

The ville Republican said the Legislature did not mandate that all

portables be removed by 2003. " And in fact, " he added, " the districts will

find themselves unable to receive Effort Index Grants if they remove

satisfactory student station space from inventory and fail to meet their

growth needs. "

But what is satisfactory?

The proposed standards would render most, if not all, of Hillsborough's

portables obsolete, said Hamilton, who is overseeing Hillsborough's school

construction.

" The same thing for us, " said in Dade County. " If the standards

came out and we had to do away with all our 2,400 portables, it would be

disastrous. "

© St. sburg Times