Survey of conditions, age of state schools suggested

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Bob Miller doesn't think the state should help finance construction of public schools, but he wants a statewide survey of existing classrooms to determine their age, condition and size.

The governor is going to ask the Legislature for $1.7 million to conduct the study. After the defeat of school construction bond issues in four of six counties in November, there have been suggestions that the state set up a fund to help local districts build new schools to handle growth.

Miller has said construction should be left to the individual school districts.

His proposal for the survey was outlined Tuesday at a meeting of the state Public Works Board by Budget Director Perry Comeaux, who said his office has seen a "dramatic" decline in spending by schools for facility maintenance.

The administration is concerned about the possible deterioration of some schools, he said. There is no comprehensive inventory of school facilities now, but "this will tell us where they are, how old and in what condition."

Board member Val Garner of Las Vegas expressed some concern. "That's an awful lot of money to generate information that's already available." He suggested school districts could supply the necessary data.

But Comeaux and Public Works Board General Manager Eric Raecke said each district may view the conditions of classrooms differently.

Raecke estimates there may be 27 million square feet of school facilities in Nevada.

He said the Clark County School District plans a survey on the condition of 78 schools built prior to 1970. And he said it may be possible to join with Clark in a collective effort.

Board member Roger Trounday of Reno said that school construction "will be a hot topic" at the 1997 Legislature and could change the state's role in education.

Comeaux explained schools receive state aid on a per pupil basis, and the cost of maintenance is built into the formula. But once the Legislature appropriates the money, the state has no say whether the districts use it for maintenance or other purposes. "There are no strings attached," he said.

If the survey finds buildings are deteriorating, Comeaux said the information could be used to persuade the Legislature to provide aid in another way: Lawmakers could "draw a fence" around the maintenance funds and require they be spent only on those projects.

The board voted unanimously to include the $1.7 million in the $300 million capital construction budget that will be proposed to the Legislature.

Another addition to that list is $500,000 aimed at air contamination in some state buildings. Raecke said there are still about 20 of 550 workers in the Sawyer State Office Building in Las Vegas who are experiencing coughing, eye irritation or breathing problems.

About 14 employees at the Desert Research Institute building in Las Vegas have the same trouble, he said.

"In an effort to be energy-efficient, we try to wring out every BTU and sometimes this lowers the air exchanges in the building," Raecke said.

"We don't let the building breath well enough ... and we don't flush the contaminants out as quickly," he said. The extra $500,000 would not only be used at the Sawyer and Desert Research buildings, but at other state facilities where there are problems.