Hazard zones? Lee schools dealing with nearly 10,000 safety deficiencies

An Estero High School elevator has needed repair for three years running.

The kindergarten play area at Pinewoods Elementary has been waiting four years for a fence.

Bonita Middle School was cited for the sixth time in a row for improperly maintained fire doors.

A report to be filed with the State Fire Marshal's Office by the end of the month reveals facilities around the Lee County School District had 9,832 safety and security deficiencies when inspected during the 2005-06 school year by district officials and area fire departments. Many of them were repeat violations.

According to a memo this week from Superintendent James Browder to the school board, just more than a third of them have already been dealt with by the district. Its short-staffed maintenance department might have to hire private companies to make the rest of the repairs, according to officials.

Bill Moore, the district's executive director for school support, said lack of personnel last year led to contracts being farmed out in each geographic zone to get the schools up to standards.

"It depends on the number and how large it is and the capabilities of the maintenance department to do it," he said. "Last year we had to outsource it, we didn't have the manpower to get it done. We may have to do it again."

The maintenance department is "understaffed like crazy," he said.

In 2002, with 10,200 repairs to deal with, the district predicted some of the repairs wouldn't be done until this year because of a lack of money and manpower.

This year's repair needs were noted by the district inspections staff after reviews of 82 facilities, the bulk of which are school buildings. In most cases, fire marshals toured the facilities at the same time to make their own report.

By law, the data must be submitted to the state fire marshal each year. Both the fire districts and the schools themselves are required to inspect each building. A binder of the Lee County violations measures several inches thick. Each is ranked on a scale of 1 to 5 by level of priority, from serious to minimal.

Deficiencies can range from a stained ceiling tile to a door with a chain lock on it, Moore said.

The number of years the problem has been found also is noted.

Bonita Springs Fire Marshal Mark Goodman said the schools inspected in his district are in pretty good shape.

Of the 9,832 citations noted districtwide, just 1 percent were documented at either Spring Creek or Bonita Springs elementary schools.

Though Bonita Springs Elementary had 107 deficiencies noted in its 2002 report, fewer than half that number were noted this year.

When the schools were inspected this winter, 27 violations were found at Spring Creek Elementary, where the fire district noted a fire alarm strobe was needed in the copy room, power strips were piggy-backed and an exit sign wasn't working. The same number of problems were noted at Bonita Springs Middle School, where inspectors found deadbolt locks on storage doors, too few exit signs and a sprinkler system that needed modifications.

Pinewoods Elementary in Estero this year had 147 violations, compared to 293 it saw in 2002. Sixty-three already have been corrected, according to the report. Of those, three were judged to be serious fire safety violations.

Three Oaks Middle in San Carlos Park had 62 violations, 39 of which have been fixed, one of which was deemed serious.

Inspections at Estero High School found 181 deficiencies, two of them serious.

According to the report, none of the needed repairs had been confirmed as of early this month.

Moore said he didn't know how many deficiencies were reported last year, but said the district should have fewer this year as a result of contracting out some of the work.

Repeat offenses should be the exception, he said.

In south Lee schools, though, a review of the inspections show pages of violations that have been noted at least once, and in many cases several times.

Out of 27 violations found at Bonita Springs Middle this year, the school had been cited in 11 cases at least twice and in some cases six times, according to inspections done by the Bonita Springs Fire Control and Rescue District.

The violations are split into two categories, he said, those the school can handle itself — like clutter blocking an emergency exit — and those that fall to the district's maintenance staff.

According to the State Fire Marshal's Office, the top violations found by the school district during its own inspections last year were inoperable or missing smoke detectors, broken emergency lights, fire extinguishers in need of inspection, maintenance of exit access and improper use of extension cords.

Six years ago, the district was dealing with a much more serious situation. State officials s threatened to close 64 of the 68 schools open at the time over fire safety concerns.

At the time, officials estimated Lee County would need to spend $34 million in fire safety repairs by this year.

A cost estimate for this year's repairs is not yet available.

Lee County's maintenance staff met with the inspectors to discuss the reports, according to Browder's memo, and the school board will be briefed at an upcoming meeting about outstanding violations.

Principals also have access to school-by-school reports of the deficiencies through the district's internal Web site.

Soon, parents, too, will be able to check out the data, not through the school district but on the state's Web site.

Nina Banister, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Financial Services and the State Fire Marshal's Office, said a system is set to launch shortly that will offer detail on each report the district submits.

The first data available will be from the 2004-2005 school year, she said, with subsequent years to follow.