Citrus School Board gets construction recommendations

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

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For the second time this month, the Citrus County School District has received recommendations explaining how officials can prevent future construction problems, such as those encountered at Homosassa Elementary School.

The Florida Department of Education (DOE) released a draft report to the school district Tuesday. The school district requested the report after two buildings at Homosassa Elementary School were found to have major construction deficiencies, including missing steel and grout from the walls.

School board chairwoman Pat Deutschman said the district will use the DOE's findings, as well as those from the board's Blue Ribbon Committee, to change district policies and procedures in the Facilities and Construction Department.

"These two reports are very similar," Deutschman said. "They're all on the same page and that's a good thing."

One of DOE's recommendations was for this group to meet regularly to better plan future district construction projects.

Deutschman was pleased that many of DOE's findings mirrored the Blue Ribbon Committee's findings, as well as substantiating her own beliefs.

"The school board needs to be much more involved in the long-range planning," said Deutschman. "They have been out of the loop for as long as I can remember. It reinforces what I believe the role of the school board should be. This is a really good launching pad for us to do this."

Other recommendations included prioritizing future construction projects to give the Facilities and Maintenance Department a more realistic workload, and contracting out work during peak times or when work does not require a full-time position.

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