Supporters of the controversial plan to renovate Velarde Elementary School recently learned an inaccurate report regarding improvements to the existing structure could create obstacles for getting the project funded.
A bit more than a month after the Española School Board announced it was moving forward with the once-abandoned plan to build a new school, a new analysis of the existing structure’s condition has pushed the project further down on the Public School Capital Outlay Council’s priority list for funding.
The weighted New Mexico Condition Index rating determines a school’s spot on the priority list and the most recent analysis of Velarde Elementary School shows the school is in much better condition than it was in Fiscal Year 2012, when the Council allocated the District nearly $2.7 million in matching funds for the project.
The District never encumbered or used the allocation because the Board decided to shut the school, so they could consolidate the Velarde and Alcalde elementary schools.
The current rating is about 34 percent, compared to the almost 56 percent rating the school had when the Council appropriated approximately $2.7 million to the District to complete the project.
Public School Facilities Authority Planning and Design Manager Martica Casias attributed, in an Oct. 18 inter-office memo to Authority Director Robert Gorrell, the better rating to several things, including a lower student count, a new septic system and a couple of replaced swamp coolers.
“Since 2011-2012 some deficiencies were corrected either by replacement or extended life based on condition, which derives a better score,” Casias wrote.
Casias said in a Dec. 6 interview, that while she and her colleagues determined the walls and floors had been repaired, the information regarding the replacement coolers, the HVAC and septic system upgrades, were reported to the Authority by District staff.
During the last few years, Velarde resident Roiba Sanchez has been working with her friends and neighbors to stop the Board from closing the school. She was delighted to hear the Board announce, Sept. 21, it no longer had plans to close the school.
Sanchez acknowledges District officials upgraded the septic system in preparation for the renovation project before the project was scrapped.
She said she pays close attention to the repairs the District completes and the majority of the work in the memo has not been completed.
“It is concerning that a miscommunication could have resulted in the PSFA rescinding the District’s state-matching funds for the Velarde Project,” Sanchez said. “PSFA was given the impression that the HVAC was replaced in 2012. It has not been replaced and very few improvements or major work orders have been completed since 2013.”
Sanchez’s notion that the repairs in question were never completed may be correct. A review of the District’s work orders via an Inspection of Public Records Act request, from January 2013 to November 2013, supports Sanchez’s belief. They show several minor repairs to the air conditioning unit, but based on those documents, the air conditioning hasn’t been replaced.
Facilities Manager Adán Cordova said the swamp cooler replacements didn’t show up in the query because they were installed in 2011 or 2012.
Board President Pablo Lujan said he wouldn’t necessarily be made aware of the capital work performed throughout the District, especially smaller projects under $5,000, because they wouldn’t come before the Board for approval.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Everything we have been told to fix, we have fixed. But I don’t remember the walls and all of that. I know we did some work in the cafeteria and on the water fountains that were in dire need.”
In a string of emails between Sanchez and Authority officials, she wanted to know why none of the building’s other issues, such as the lack of flooring in the gym lobby, unstable exterior library walls and trashed bathrooms, weren’t in the report.
Casias said she didn’t include those items in the report because they weren’t brought to her attention when she accessed the school.
“The items you mention in your email, are items we did not find,” Casias wrote in response to Sanchez’s question. “We assessed the school with the district maintenance, principal and custodian and they did not bring these items to our attention.”
Since the Board didn’t follow through with the plans to renovate, about $1.5 million of the $2.5 million the District previously secured, was pulled back by the Public Schools Capital Outlay Council and used for other projects.
Board Vice President Lucas Fresquez said the District had originally decided to close the Velarde Elementary School and merge it with Alcalde Elementary School based on a recommendations from 2014 Española Public Schools Facilities Master Plan.
He said he supported closing the school because he thought it would be best for the District but changed his mind after he saw what the school meant to the community.
After Sanchez’s queries, Casias, accompanied with Superintendent Eric Martinez and Head Teacher Sherri Rodriguez, inspected the school, Nov. 22, but that report hasn’t been released yet.
Rodriguez, who serves as Velarde’s top administrator, is scheduled to appear before the Council at its Friday meeting to present the school’s needs to the body of regulators.
Regardless of what is decided at that meeting, District officials won’t have access to the matching funds again until sometime in 2018.