MOUNT VERNON — Millions of dollars are spent every year to build and renovate educational facilities throughout the state of Ohio. Most of those millions are spent on projects authorized and partially funded by the Ohio School Facilities Commission. But who is responsible for making sure those dollars are spent efficiently and well?
Ray Richardson, superintendent of the Knox County Career Center, has spent hours and hours trying to find out.
With the opening day of school only a week away, the OSFC building additions and renovation work at KCCC seem to be far from complete. Richardson said he is grateful for the potential, through OSFC funding, for improving the situation for career center students.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “I think there has been a significant lack of accountability on the part of some of the general contractors and the construction management firm.”
Richardson said there has been an ongoing lack of materials, equipment and work force, poor workmanship in some areas, and significant delays in scheduling and communication from one construction company to another. After receiving what he termed mere “lip service” from some of the general contractors, architects and construction management firm, Richardson said he decided he was “not going to sit back and let these guys make millions at the cost of our kids and our kids not be served.”
He called with complaints, and wrote and sent pictures to the OSFC. Last week, he personally visited the OSFC office in Columbus.
“The construction company is getting almost $2 million to supervise this project,” Richardson said. “The Ohio School Facilities said, ‘You have to have a construction management company.’ Well, they sent some people down here, but there is no accountability. Nobody will take responsibility. Most of the accountability that occurred here is due to our own staff and supervisors. We walk through these hallways every day and see things not being done.
“The company’s major concern is the legal ramifications to make sure they get the job, and then make sure they have an attorney for every loophole that there is. ... It isn’t about what’s right for kids. They don’t care about the kids. They just care about getting the money.
“The flaw is that these people are being given these bids by the Ohio School Facilities Commission. OSFC’s fear is that they are going to be sued and they’re not going to be politically correct in awarding contracts, and the kids and the school boards are at the mercy of these attorneys. ... It’s that way all over the state.”
Richardson has also talked with Sen. Bill Harris, who visited the career center Monday to see the situation for himself.
Harris, president of the Ohio Senate, said he previously talked to the director of the school facilities commission and was assured the matter would be taken care of and enough workers would be on site to complete the job before school starts.
“When I come here today,” Harris said, “I look around and it looks to me like there’s a skeleton staff here as opposed to a full-force effort by all the people involved to get things done. I don’t know how in the world they’re going to be able to start school on the 27th. It’s frustrating.”
On the tour, it was noted that most of the ceiling tiles are gone, waiting for wiring to be completed. Many floors are untiled, a substantial amount of equipment and furniture have not been delivered as scheduled, and Richardson said one wall and windows in the new cafeteria had to be redone. A helicopter was needed to place temporary heating, ventilation and cooling units on the roof of the building. The units will need to be replaced in December, because they are not the correct size for the building.
“Who’s going to pay for that?” Richardson asked.
“In the end,” Harris said, “it’s taxpayers’ money. If we don’t have school facilities, the legislature gets criticized. And rightfully so — we were the ones that formed the school facilities commission. And now the school facilities commission has to perform their responsibility to ensure that these contractors getting paid really good money are doing a good job. ... This is not an example of a good job.
“We’re going to be spending just under $7 billion in the next three years in additional school facilities construction throughout the state,” he continued. “... If they [OSFC] have got problems with an operation like this [KCCC], how in the world are they going to ensure that the money they are spending for school facilities is going to provide quality schools? And if it doesn’t, in a short period of time, we’re going to end up with dilapidated buildings and no money. We can’t allow that to happen and we’re not going to allow that to happen.”
Richardson would advise other schools not to just take the OSFC’s word about the quality of a certain construction company.
“I would say any school district needs to be very, very, very diligent in sitting down and talking to other people who have been through OSFC projects,” he said. “Not talking to the construction management company, not talking to the architects, but talking to people on a half dozen different job sites and asking ‘Would you use them again? Tell me about your problems.’”
