Inquiry looms for Broward County school construction program

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Inquiry looms for Broward County school construction program

By Bill Hirschman

Education Writer

Posted January 26 2002

A state prosecutor plans to reopen a grand jury investigation into the

Broward County school construction program to determine whether the school

district has solved costly waste and management problems.

Assistant State Attorney Countryman said he intends to bring the

construction program back before a grand jury this spring or summer.

The specter of a new grand jury surfaces just as the School Board is poised

to discuss how and whether to ask voters to approve a bond issue, sales tax

or other tax increase to raise as much as $1.3 billion to build new schools

and renovate old ones. The board has slated a discussion for Feb. 12.

The follow-up inquiry would re-examine school district efforts to cure ills

outlined in a highly critical and wide-ranging state grand jury report in

November 1997.

But a key focus of the new inquiry will be the district's ongoing $44

million war to curb mold and mildew, Countryman said. The district's own

auditors criticized the campaign last month for shoddy repair work,

inadequate coordination and poor planning.

Countryman, head of the public corruption unit, attended the Jan. 15 School

Board meeting at which the mold and mildew audit was discussed.

In preparation for the grand jury, Countryman is issuing 35 subpoenas to

district employees to give sworn statements to his staff, according to a

school district internal memo.

The first employee was called before Countryman on Friday, confirmed

Calhoun, deputy superintendent over construction. " My understanding is that

they're just reviewing the past grand jury report and looking to update the

information, " Calhoun said.

Superintendent Till said the district will cooperate fully with the

investigation.

" We anticipated all along that we would have to come back " to the grand jury

to discuss reforms, Till said. " But we trust that our internal audits will

have found anything that could be found. "

Although the state never rules it out, the investigation isn't designed to

produce indictments but to collate a report analyzing systemic problems in

public operations.

The 1997 grand jury spent eight months hearing from witnesses and gathering

reams of documents before issuing a report.

One key finding: District officials moved so fast to open schools to relieve

crowding that they reused untested architectural designs that contained

flaws. The staff also approved or ignored shoddy workmanship.

One result was leaky roofs and walls where rainwater and bacteria produced

enough mold and mildew to make students and employees ill at schools across

the county.

But in the past year, complaints have mounted from parents and employees at

schools such as Virginia Shuman Young Elementary in Fort Lauderdale. They

say eradication efforts have taken too long and have been ineffective.

The grand jury's findings were released in November 1997 on the eve of a

referendum that created single-member districts for board members.

Proponents said the waste proved that members needed to be elected from

smaller districts to make them more accountable to voters.

After the report was issued, Countryman vowed to monitor the situation and

reopen the case if warranted. Since then, he has received complaints from

whistleblowers, interviewed employees and read news accounts of problems.

In April, Countryman ratcheted up his informal inquiries when a maintenance

supervisor alleged waste, mismanagement, fraud and kickbacks. The

allegations said the maintenance department:

Knowingly spent nearly twice as much money to repair portable classrooms as

it would have cost to buy new ones.

Spent money to repair aging portables that are being phased out under state

law.

Allowed maintenance contractors to decide how much work needed to be done at

schools, without oversight from any district official.

In November that investigation resulted in criminal charges that a tile

company billed the district for installing nearly 360,000 square feet of

tile that wasn't laid at about 50 schools.

Regarding the bond issue, most board members have said they want to delay a

vote until they regain the public's trust -- the issue they think sank a

1995 sales tax referendum for school construction.

On the surface, much has changed since 1997. Most of the top management,

including Associate Superintendent Ray de la Feuilliez, has been replaced by

mid-level managers and reform-minded newcomers such as Calhoun.

For instance, bidding procedures were changed to allow the board to reject

low bids from incompetent contractors. Contracts were tightened to allow the

district to recoup damages from tardy builders.

Bill Hirschman can be reached at bhirschman@... or

954-356-4513.

Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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