By Rick Madewell
Assistant Editor

Osceola County School Board Chairwoman Cindy Hartig publicly scolded school district facilities overseers Tuesday for shoddy inspections, approving unfinished building blueprints and allowing wrong materials to be purchased; she even hinted some procedures were being done illegally.

The School District’s chief facilities officer, Bob Nanni, resigned the following day. 

"The School District will be advertising for the position of Chief Facilities Officer.  We are looking for a person with a strong management and educational facilities background,” Superintendent Michael Grego said in a prepared statement. “In light of the current job market, I anticipate that we will receive a wide range of applicants of the highest quality. We are committed to consistently strengthening all departments to show the progress being made in the district."

Clyde Wells, director of maintenance, is now working with both Facilities and Maintenance, until a new chief facilities officer is hired.

Hartig, commenting at Tuesday’s regular board meeting, said her blood pressure was rising when she discovered the district had spent more than $70,000 on the wrong grade of trusses for work on Thacker Avenue Elementary School in Kissimmee and that inspectors left patches of mold growing on the walls of a bathroom at Ross Jeffries Elementary School in St. Cloud. She also pointed out that drawings of Parkway Middle School were made without bathrooms.

“We should never start building until we have 100 percent shop drawings,” Hartig pointedly told school officials. “If we, here internally, did not do what we needed to do, which we didn't, we have a problem. We think we're so dagnabbit smart and we make these decisions, but it costs us money every time.”

She asked Superintendent Michael Grego to produce logs showing the work done and the inspections.

New district 5 School Board Member Tom Long brought up the issue of $70,400 being spent on “exposure B” trusses when they should have been “exposure C” trusses.

Nanni said it was an issue with the contractors and he did not know if it had been resolved.

“It appears we would have bought the wrong trusses then,” Long said.

Hartig then demanded to know who was inspecting the district’s bleachers. Chris Crowe, district’s director of permitting, said he would be taking care of it “to save the district some dollars.”

“You are not a structural engineer, sir. Florida statute says you can't do it,” Hartig said. “I don't understand why no one wants to follow the law. I listen to what people say and I get very upset.”

She continued, “We have people who messed up and didn't do the job. And somebody needs to pay for it, and it's not the taxpayers and it's not the School District. We go buy the trusses and look what happens. We spend millions later trying to fix it.”

Hartig then brought up the mold issue at Ross Jeffries Elementary School.

“Is anybody aware of the mold out at Ross Jeffries?” she asked. Officials reported they had heard nothing.

“We certainly should have seen all the mold on the bathroom walls,” Hartig said.

Another matter Hartig brought up concerned the TECO portables, which had to be dismantled because of fire safety issues. The cost for the dismantling: $47,000.

Grego admitted there were portables that were possible fire hazards, adding that he was concerned about discussing the topic during a public forum.

“I’m not sure coming up here and bashing one of our employees is the way to do it,” he said. “We can either have this publicly or allow ourselves to fix this.”

District 1 Member Jay Wheeler piped in on the matter.

“There will always be different opinions but the sky is not falling. We have done a good job with the schools. We don’t have a poorly run operation,” he said. “We've been building schools and putting children in safe facilities for years and years. I wouldn't walk in here and say we're doing things illegally and inefficiently. There are differences of opinion.”

“When you cut a main supporting truss, that's a problem. OK? When you don't follow drawings, that's a problem … ,” Hartig said.

“Mrs. Hartig, you're always going to be right and everyone's going to be wrong,” Wheeler said.

“Mr. Wheeler, I'm speaking, please don't interrupt,” Hartig responded.

“I'll just walk out,” Wheeler said. “This is a waste of time.”

He then left the meeting, but returned a short time later.

In other business, the board granted population relief to three schools through redistricting.

A number of Celebration High School students will now be attending either Osceola or Poinciana high schools, which can accept additional students.

Harmony Community School is now at 107 percent of capacity. The board voted to reduce that number to 95 percent through redistricting 105 students to Narcoossee Elementary School, which, with the extra students, will go from 64 percent of capacity to 76 percent.

Redistricting also will relieve Westside School, at 111 percent in student population with many now going to Celebration K-8. Celebration’s enrollment will jump from 87 percent capacity to 92 percent.

• The School Board honored Marjorie Guillen-Melendez, who will be leaving the board now that her husband, Julius Melendez, has returned from active military service. Melendez will reclaim his seat at the next regular meeting.

• T.J. Palmer, of Kissimmee, president of the Osceola County Veterans Council, asked the board if it could determine a principal worthy of being honored at its regular April veterans dinner, where teachers have previously been honored. Board members obliged, saying they would be happy to provide a principal for the honor.

• Joe Volpe, spokesman for the Osceola County chapter of the Home Builder's Association of Metro Orlando, commented that Osceola County has some of highest impact fees in the state. He asked the board to consider modifying its school impact fee structure. The board later in the meeting voted to reduce residential impact fees by 10 percent. The County Commission must make the final decision on this.

• The board also approved with a 5-0 vote the teachers’ contract after it was ratified by 91 percent of the union’s membership.

The board’s next workshop is set for Tuesday at 9 a.m. Another workshop will be Thursday at 4 p.m. on construction issues.