Following a complaint made by an Ocean View School board member, the district has been struggling to deal with asbestos problems in its facilities for the last several months. Discovery of the toxin in three elementary schools created a public uproar and led to school closures and the displacement of more than 1,600 students. Now, the district has expressed concern about how trustees will handle the $7.8 million budget gap created by the mess.
“You went from being a stable district to a district that’s facing insolvency,” said Wendy Benkert, the assistant superintendent for business services at the Orange County Department of Education. “But I believe with prudent decisions you can turn this around,” she added.
The entire fiasco began in July, at the onset of a modernization project of 11 of the district’s schools, when asbestos was detected in some classrooms. Later, attempts to abate the harmful substance were made during school hours, putting students and faculty at risk of exposure, which prompted board member John Briscoe to blow the whistle. Asbestos exposure can be extremely detrimental to respiratory health, and it is the primary cause of mesothelioma.
With funding exhausted by emergency costs, the trustees are now considering ways to save money by prioritizing and delaying certain construction tasks, as well as attempting to sell an unused site. “We have to start rethinking some of this stuff,” said Trustee Debbie Cotton. “We need to be strategic about how we delay or cancel construction.”
The company handling the construction, Ledesma & Meyer Construction Co., is working with the district to best manage the timeline and available funds, but it’s a balancing act. According to Kris Meyer, principal contractor with Ledesma & Meyer, construction is “like an aircraft carrier. You can’t just turn on a dime and just stop.”
Meyer estimated that work in the three asbestos-containing schools would be completed by the end of March.