State Probes School Construction Gregoire Won’t Release Names Of 9 Eastern Washington Schools With ‘Significant Problems’
FOR THE RECORD: (August 25, 1995): The State Department of Labor and Industries levied a $100 fine and charged $3,000 for the cost of inspection against Rainbow Electric of Spokane following construction problems at schools in Lake Chelan. A Thursday article gave an incorrect amount.
An investigation by the state attorney general has turned up “significant construction problems” in nine Eastern Washington schools serious enough to endanger lives.
Christine Gregoire said she could not release the names of the schools or the types of problems because the investigation is ongoing and disclosure could hinder it.
Administrators at the nine schools, all built within the last four years and largely in small school districts, know of problems and are in the process of fixing them before school starts in September, said state schools superintendent Judith Billings, who accompanied Gregoire to Spokane for a news conference.
Parents who have questions about school safety should contact school district administrators, Billings said.
“We felt it was important that the public knew as much as we could share while at the same time continuing our criminal investigation,” said Gregoire. “There is no need - I repeat - no need to panic about what we have found.”
The probe was ordered by Gov. Mike Lowry after construction problems were found at Lake Chelan middle and high schools. The state Labor Department has fired an inspector who approved the work, revoked the license of a foreman on the job and levied a $31,000 fine against the company that did the wiring, Rainbow Electric of Spokane.
The Lake Chelan School District is suing two Spokane firms - Architects West and Levernier Construction - involved in the project.
Worried that more substandard construction existed in public schools, Gregoire has begun a criminal investigation into the school building business. She estimated the probe will cost $1.5 million.
So far, the investigation has looked at several Eastern Washington school districts and found construction problems at nine of them.
Afraid that there may be problems at school districts not surveyed, Gregoire said she decided to warn districts across the state. She also took the unusual step of holding a news conference before an investigation was complete.
“I am a parent, too,” said Gregoire. “Thus, our threshold for safety concerns is strict when it comes to the safety of our kids.”
If districts find problems, administrators can apply for a $10 million pool of loan money set aside by the last Legislature to help fix substandard construction.
The ongoing investigation centers mostly around small Eastern Washington districts that have constructed or remodeled buildings in the last four years. Gregoire said the five-person investigation team targeted that group because most of the districts could not afford an experienced construction manager to monitor progress.
Investigators did not find similar problems at the 40 to 50 Western Washington school districts contacted. More districts in Western Washington have construction managers than in Eastern Washington, Billings said.
Several Spokane schools, including Mead’s Brentwood Elementary School and District 81’s Chase Middle School, were inspected by the attorney general’s inspectors. No significant problems turned up, administrators said.
Other districts with construction in the last four years include Cheney, Colville, East Valley, Central Valley, Mary Walker, Riverside, Rosalia, Colfax, Harrington, Newport, Freeman, Nine Mile Falls and Loon Lake.
Many school district administrators are unsure what to tell parents when they call. Via faxes, schools were instructed by Billings and Gregoire to carefully examine - or re-examine, in some cases - their buildings to ensure safety.
But with only sketchy information to go on, some local administrators were concerned that parents may be given the wrong message.
Rick Cole, superintendent of the Colville School District, saw the attorney general’s inspectors review three buildings that were worked on since 1993, but doesn’t know what to tell parents other than the obvious - everything is fine.
“If they have found troubles, it wasn’t here,” said Cole. “I hope we don’t scare parents into not sending their kids to school. These buildings have been open for two years.”
Gregoire refused to divulge names of contractors involved, but several schools reviewed by investigators had common contractors.
Levernier Construction was contractor at Lake Chelan and a school inspected by investigators, Cle Elum-Roslyn Elementary and Middle School.
After the Cle Elem-Roslyn school opened in 1993, staff in the kitchen and lunch room complained of headaches and dizziness. Boilers and heating systems were shut down last spring after maintenance personnel found air was leaking from smoke stacks above the boilers into fresh air vents.
Levernier agreed to pay for repairs and to reimburse the district $23,000 after administrators hired an independent consultant to inspect the school.
Joe Levernier, owner of the company, did not return a telephone call Wednesday night.
Work done by Rainbow Electric, subcontractor on the Lake Chelan building, may also be a target of investigators.
Al Swanson, business manager for Mead School District, said investigators were interested only in Brentwood and not any of the other district schools built or remodeled in the last four years. Brentwood’s wiring was installed by Rainbow.
The company did not return requests for interviews.
Work done by the company is also being reviewed by the Department of Labor and Industries, which inspects electrical work in most of the state.
Inspectors revisited seven schools where the company installed wiring and found only minor problems, according to Mike Watson, deputy director of the the department.
At Harrington High School in Harrington, Wash., inspectors found 10 violations, Watson said. The worst violation - ankle-deep water in a room with a circuit breaker - was not the fault of Rainbow.
, DataTimes