GILROY
– School district officials are trying to plan ahead for higher
costs related to maintaining the improved, larger facilities that
are planned for construction.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – School district officials are trying to plan ahead for higher costs related to maintaining the improved, larger facilities that are planned for construction.
“This is the biggest concern that I have with regards to the Facilities Master Plan,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said at a recent school board facilities study session.
Trustees at the study session also expressed concern over future maintenance costs linked to the opening of three new schools within the next five years.
“How deep is the hole we’re digging?” Trustee David McRae said. McRae was formerly a maintenance employee of Gilroy Unified School District.
As the district completes construction on newer, larger facilities, the cost of day-to-day maintenance will continue to rise.
“With the very ambitious building we have going on now, we need to plan ahead,” said Steve Brinkman, assistant superintendent of administrative services, in a recent interview. “I would like to … be able to find more monies for maintenance, especially long term. We can make it with what we have, but as we add facilities over the years, it’s going to make it tougher and tougher.”
This year, GUSD has earmarked $1.83 million for routine maintenance, along with $1.87 million for custodial work and $427,000 for landscaping maintenance. The district is required to set aside at least 3 percent of its general fund budget (roughly $66 million) for maintenance.
Money for upkeep, which comes from the district’s general fund, pays for district staff to keep all school campuses and the district office building up and running.
With the addition of two larger replacement elementary schools, a new high school and several multi-purpose rooms planned beginning next summer, district officials say they must prepare for higher maintenance costs even as the district must work to trim its budget.
“We know that there’s a need down the road for more help, said Jeff Gopp, manager of maintenance operations for GUSD. “And maintenance is ongoing. That’s why they call it ‘maintenance.'”
The biggest impact on GUSD’s maintenance department right now, Gopp said, is keeping up with custodial and grounds work.
“We’re able to keep up with it, barely,” he said. “You add more buildings, you add more sites, you add more landscaping, you add more personnel.”
The district currently employs seven groundskeepers and 11 skilled-trade workers who perform some light maintenance, Gopp said. GUSD also employs 38 permanent custodians, a number that Gopp says has held steady since he joined GUSD in 2001.
“To maintain the grounds and to keep them up to their current status, to keep them going, I (will) need more personnel,” Gopp said, noting that Ascencion Solorsano Middle School, which opened in August, added another 16 acres to the grounds already maintained by staff. Gopp said he could not estimate how much maintenance costs will increase in the future, but took some comfort in the fact that the subject is already being discussed.
At the district’s study session, Trustee Bob Kraemer inquired whether maintenance costs might temporarily decrease as new facilities replace older ones. A replacement Eliot Elementary School is scheduled to open in fall 2005 while a new Las Animas is slated for 2006 and a second high school for 2008. Gopp said that the new facilities will not necessarily equal less maintenance work.
“We will need to maintain the sites continually,” Gopp said. “Think about (it): You have to maintain your yard, your house, your car – everything needs to be kept up, even if it’s new.”
Other upcoming construction projects include multi-purpose rooms at Glen View, El Roble and Gilroy High School, which Gopp called the hardest to maintain. Gopp said the concern now is where GUSD will get the money to pay for facilities upkeep.
“All the operations money comes from the general fund and the general fund is what’s really being hurt right now,” Gopp said. “To build the sites, we can use bond money. We cannot use bond funds for routine day-to-day maintenance.”
Two school bonds make up the majority of funding for projects included in the district’s 25-year Facilities Master Plan. Measure I, passed by Gilroy voters last fall, designated $69 million to build new school facilities and upgrade existing buildings. Measure J, passed in 1992 but refinanced in 2001 for another $14 million, pays to modernize older sites.
One upside to expanding school facilities is that it actually creates the possibility of more money for maintenance.
“Theoretically, as you add additional facilities, you can get more (daily per-student funding) because of additional students,” Brinkman said. “But that’s only if you get additional students and you (give) maintenance a share of that.”
Other school districts are looking at non-traditional ways to generate maintenance money and GUSD might do the same, Brinkman said. One option would be to lease district-owned property and use money for upkeep. Money from land sales cannot be used for maintenance, whereas money from a lease can.
One option for creating rent or lease income would be an affordable teacher housing project. The advantage of teacher housing would be both maintenance money and an incentive for attracting high-quality teachers. The high home price in Gilroy has long been bemoaned for keeping teachers from GUSD.
Brinkman said the matter is only being discussed as a possibility.
