$744 Million in public funds and no oversight

Criminally negligent or waay too much bother?

A multi-part post on Facilities Bond spending. Part 1: Modernization gets pricey

Figure 1: West Portal Elementary School. Source: Google Maps

Not too long ago, a parent put up a since-deleted post on a public forum, “What happened to modernization at my child’s West Portal Elementary School after all those meetings just stopped?” When we and our kids were 5 years younger, San Francisco voters passed 2016 Proposition A, the San Francisco Unified School Improvement Bond, with over 289,000 votes or nearly 80% approval. For 0.01-0.02% of property tax over 25 years or so, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) would get 40 seismically upgraded and modernized schools, new kitchens and green schoolyards, 2 new schools, a new District Arts Center, teacher housing and more for a little more than $744 million. Maybe.

Pour yourself a single coffee plant cold brew with oat milk because this deep dive has a long path and is still relevant. There’s even a whistleblower.

We’re gonna need even more money

Today, the District can trumpet they are working on 17 of those 40 proposed school modernization sites. Maybe a few are completed. No new schools, no District Arts Center, no teacher housing. There is apparently no more money ($400 million plus) to modernize any other school on the list. Not enough money ($100 million) for one new school. Not enough money by far for the proposed District Arts Center ($100 million). No plan to spend the money on teacher housing. But the District is planning to ask for $1,000,000,000 (one billion, folks) in the facilities bond proposition next year.

How did we get here? Aren’t there audits and citizen oversight? Things actually were working well, until it all stopped. The audit for 2018 was never approved. The audit for 2019 arrived over 6 months late. The audit for 2020 is 4 months late and in process. There was a Citizen Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC), until it was disbanded in 2019. The new CBOC, selected by the people spending the money, just got started last month.

And what does this complete absence of fiscal management have to do with the San Francisco Board of Education (SFBoE)? They are the ones who put forth the Proposition. They are the ones who vote on the spending. They are the ones who put people on the CBOC. On paper. Criminally negilgent or waay too much bother?

West Portal modernization: can you do a little more?

Figure 2: AGS Geotechnical Services Drawing of Boring locations. Note the location of the Muni tunnel running under the site from upper left to lower right. Source: AGS submission to SFUSD, November 2, 2018.

School modernization is a multi-year project that involves a good deal of design work before the shovels start. If you are thinking about busted lockers, no bathroom doors, poor or non-existent room ventilation, that’s more likely the deferred maintenance bucket. For the 2011 Facilities Bond, the average cost for Elementary School modernization averaged $2.8 million across 17 schools. West Portal Elementary School, for some reason, got approval for initial architectural assessment by WRNS Studio, contract #2400, at a Board Meeting on January 22, 2018.

Assessment involves the scope of work, budget, and proposed schedule. The Exhibit B attachment had only a proposed schedule, presumably generated by Facilities staff. Construction was planned to take 310 days with final completion planned for Christmas Day 2020. The scope of work was gleaned from a different vendor, AGS Geotechnical, describing one new 2 story structure and one new 1 story structure spanning the MUNI tunnel, and some interior work.

Schematic and bidding design, the next phase, was approved on August 28, 2018, not quite the planned April 5th date. Prior to that stage, 2 soil bearings were made, as well as a survey of the inside of the Muni tunnel, as the school was built on top. This budget modification brought the total WRNS bill to $1,874,224. The new timeline, Exhibit B, had construction commencing March 12, 2020 and completing October 18, 2021. And at last, on April 19, 2019, the total budget including design work was revealed to be $26,069,726.

The period from May 2019 up to at least January 2021 is when things get complicated. Meetings with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Design change because of refusal to move school administration to the basement. Moving of retaining wall. Modification of seismic retrofit then removal of the retrofit entirely. All these items are mentioned in the requests for extra funds from the architect and the AGS geotechnical engineers, Contract 2442. And all these consent items were approved by the SFBoE without comment or question.

Here is one AGS quote: “We anticipated one round of revisions. But due to the complexity of the site, we addressed three rounds of revisions.” AGS representatives attended 12 meetings between February 2019 and June 2020, 5 more than originally budgeted.

It is August 2021 and there is no request to seek contractors for work yet. There won’t be for awhile because the school is now off the list of modernization projects, as of that February 24, 2020 presentation to the Buildings and Grounds Committee of the SFBoE. So thanks for all the input, parents and site leaders, you may have moved on before we break ground.

Can they all be money pits?

As was said at the end of the 1986 movie The Money Pit: “This wasn’t an easy one. But the foundation was good, I’ll tell you that.” When the District won’t spend money on a seismic retrofit, West Portal Elementary School must have a good foundation, right? Hard to tell. What is also hard to tell is if this school modernization project is a money pit. What is hard to tell are initial costs of modernization projects, before and after the 2016 Proposition. What is hard to tell is scope of work creep. What is hard to tell is how a project is even chosen to commence.

At that February 24, 2020 meeting, Chief Facilities Officer Dawn Kalamanathan presented the 17 modernization projects funded by 2016 Proposition A.

Figure 3: Modernization Projects covered in the 2016 Proposition A Facilities Bond from February 24, 2020 presentation the Buildings and Grounds Comitttee of the SFBoE

Many elementary, middle and high schools are on this modernization list. What schools will not be modernized with the voter backed $409 million?

West Portal Elementary, Denman Middle, Galileo High, Rosa Parks Elementary, Horace Mann / Buena Vista K-8, Sherman Elementary, Leonard Flynn Elementary, Claire Lilienthal K-2 (Madison campus), Rooftop Mayeda School, Fairmount Elementary, Everett Middle, Balboa High, McAteer High, Burton High, Hoover Middle, Jean Parker Elementary, Argonne Elementary, Moscone Elementary, Commodore Sloat Elementary, Malcolm X Elementary, Mission High, Marshall Elementary

That list above is apparently not tied to equity or geography. And the scope and budget of the projects on the approved list is unknown. The SFBoE asks no questions, even when they are the ones voting on the spending.

There are two overriding concerns with this 2016 Facilities Bond. It is written with nary a “will” but plenty of “may.” The SFUSD are allowed leeway to do quite a bit, but there is not a problem if they don’t do a project.

Second, for over 2 years, audits and citizen oversight, required by the Proposition and California state law, were delayed or removed. A puzzle inside a cipher. Criminally negilgent or waay too much bother?