Schools’ Repairs All Minor Probe Of Faulty Construction Puzzles Superintendents, Firms

Attorney General Christine Gregoire’s vague announcement Wednesday of faulty construction in Eastern Washington schools has school officials and construction companies miffed and mystified.

School superintendents whose districts were visited by the attorney general’s investigators said only minor, not life-threatening, problems were found.

“What has been brought to our attention we’re taking care of and we’ll be ready to open on the 30th of August,” said Harrington School District Superintendent Mitch Denning in Lincoln County.

In July, a team of about seven people representing the attorney general’s office inspected the Harrington school where work had been done three years ago and approved by the Department of Labor and Industries.

Superintendents in Colville, Mead, Spokane, Omak, Royal City and Bridgeport told reporters their schools also were inspected, but that problems were easily fixed before school opens.

Violations included inadequate electrical grounding and holes drilled through fire walls.

Other superintendents said they didn’t know what to tell parents and the news media calling about the investigation.

“The press release was so vague it was scary to people,” said Superintendent Mike Sowder of Mary Walker School District in Springdale. Sowder said his school was not investigated.

”(Gregoire) gave herself a black eye with the schools, I think,” he said. “There should have been more information to better inform people.”

The announcement hit school officials during one of their busiest seasons. Just before the start of school, they are swamped with last-minute hiring and routine school maintenance.

Cheney School District Superintendent Phil Snowdon said with sarcasm, “We don’t have much going on this time of year. Five thousand calls are very much appreciated.”

Snowdon said Cheney schools were not investigated. He received calls, not from parents, but from the news media.

Gregoire and state schools Superintendent Judith Billings flew across the state Wednesday, touching down at airports in Yakima, Wenatchee and Spokane to hold news conferences.

They announced that a criminal investigation under way was turning up “significant construction problems” in nine Eastern Washington schools.

They urged parents to call their school districts with concerns about new and recently remodeled schools.

Gregoire and Billings would not name schools or contractors to preserve the criminal investigation and protect the reputation of businesses.

Billings’ spokesman Chris Thompson defended the decision to go public with sketchy information.

“It would have been irresponsible to have hidden from the public the information we have,” he said.

“If an unusual circumstance were to occur that led to an injury and it came to light that this information was known and not shared with the public, we would have a heck of a lot of explaining to do, and rightly so,” Thompson said.

Two Spokane companies, Rainbow Electric and Levernier Construction, worked on Lake Chelan schools where extensive construction problems led to the attorney general’s probe.

The state Department of Labor and Industries fired an inspector who approved the Lake Chelan work, revoked the license of an electrical foreman and charged Rainbow Electric a $100 fine and $3,000 in investigation costs.

Rainbow and Levernier also worked on several schools investigated by the attorney general.

Levernier’s owners were out of town and could not comment, a secretary said.

Rainbow referred questions to attorney Tom Cochrane, who said the attorney general’s office told him earlier this week that Rainbow was not a target of the current investigation.

“I’m so hacked at the attorney general and the blue ribbon SWAT team,” Cochrane said. The problems he has heard about from school districts “are so minor it’s laughable.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE PROBLEM SCHOOLS School district officials report these 11 school buildings were cited by the state Attorney General’s investigators as having construction problems: Lake Chelan middle and high school complex. Cle Elum-Roslyn elementary/ middle schools. Spokane’s Chase Middle School. Colville Junior High School, Colville Senior High School and Hofsteter Elementary in Colville. Moses Lake North Elementary and Knolls Vista Elementary in Moses Lake. Omak East Elementary School. Virginia Grainger Elementary in Okanogan. Harrington’s elementary through high school building. Associated Press