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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2004-05-12, Page 13News THE HURON EXPOSITOR, MAY 12, 2004-13 Purchasing program allows local public schools to plan for future expences, today, By Stew Slater Special to The Huron Expositor 4 In the year 2019, the exterior doors on Anne Hathaway Public School in Stratford will require replacement, and the Avon Maitland District School Board knows how much it should cost, in today's dollars. That's an indication of the degree of detail contained in a computer program being used by school boards across the province to create long- term plans for the renovation, construction and. furnishing of school buildings. Avon Maitland facilities administrator Phil McCotter told trustees about the board's use of the program, called RECAPP (Real Estate Capital Asset Priority Planning), during a regular meeting Tuesday, April 27. He noted the board followed the lead of a few other counterparts by first purchasing RECAPP in 2001, and had that decision validated a year later when the provincial government began advising school boards to use the program, and also began providing funding specifically for that purpose. At this p o i n t, McCotter said, the government has not made RECAPP mandatory. But a requirement has been put in place for boards to create facilities renewal plans covering the next 20 years -- the most recent Avon Maitland long-term plan covered just five years, and McCotter noted some boards had no plan at all -- and he suggests RECAPP may not remain optional much longer. "It's all part of what they want to see from school boards," the facilities administrator said. "They're going to make us mor e accountable for the money we're getting." Using RECAPP demands the input of extensive data about the timing and nature of each element of the school, from the actual construction., to the heating and electrical systems, to the furniture. "You name it: whatever's in the building, it's listed here," McCotter told trustees, while demonstrating on an overhead screen some of the intricacies of the Quoted 'They're going to make us more accountable for the money we're getting,' -- Phil McCotter, facilities administrator of Avon Maitland District School Board program. Of particular interest to the government, McCotter explained, is something called a "facilities condition index." That index will initially set a benchmark for each school building, and in subsequent years it's expected the government's facilities renewal grant money will result in changes in that index. "If (the government) sees that the facility condition index has not changed over the next five years, they're going to ask why," McCotter said. He suggested there may be other benefits to the program, however. Using RECAPP to generate a graph on the overhead screen, McCotter argued that, even if the government increases its facilities renewal grant to the Avon Maitland board from the current level of about $3.13 million to $6 million over the next 17 years, the board would still be unable to adequately fund the program's recommendations. "It looks like we will never get caught up," he said. Indeed, he suggested the board's "backlogue" in RECAPP-recommended upgrades is currently $18 million among elementary buildings and $17 million among secondary buildings. In particular, the program recommends the board spend $4 million this year alone on roofing projects, while funding has only provided for an average of $1 million in roofing projects over the past several years. Does that mean the board's schools are crumbling? In an interview following the meeting, McCotter was quick to counter that suggestion. He noted that none of the board's schools were deemed "pt'ohibitive to repair" -- meaning it would make more economic sense to replace the buildings than fix them -- during a province -wide assessment of that issue last year. And as for the RECAPP recommendation for $4 million in roofing work this year, he explained the computer program includes a theoretical maximum age for roofs, even though some roofs outlive that age. "Theoretically, they should get done because they're 22 years old," the facilities administrator said. "But because it's a model cost and theoretical deterioration, you've got to assess and prioritize." He added that the board's recommended expenditures in the RECAPP-generated roofing model drop off quickly after this year, meaning the board should be able to hold off on repairing the more long- lasting roofs until subsequent years. SCHOONDERWOERD BROS. 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