- April 26, 2024
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Water leaks in through the structure’s roof; termites gnaw at its foundation; and hundreds of students pass through its halls daily. But the facility won't be in operation long, school district officials say of the adult education building, if the district doesn’t do something to repair its damage.
“If certain repairs are not done, we need to vacate the building within 90 days,” Flagler County Adult and Community Education Director Virginia Giaramita said.
The Flagler Technical Institute Adult and Community Education building, at 1 Corporate Drive, was purchased by the Flagler County School District after repairs by previous owners in the late 1990s caused water to seep into the facade, she said.
The roof soaks up water instead of shedding it, said Flagler County School Board member Trevor Tucker.
“There are just a lot of problems with the shell of that building,” he said.
But perhaps most problematic are the building’s fire-safety issues.
A shaft that runs through the building allows air to flow between the three floors, said Tucker, but a fire could spread that way too. Correcting the fire hazard would mean installing fire breaks in the shaft.
If safety issues like that are fixed, Tucker said, the building could probably remain in use a few months longer.
“I believe if we make some minor repairs, my understanding is we could stay in till the end of he year,” he said. “Hopefully we won’t have to move everything until the end of the school year.”
To get the building working as intended, though, would be a more involved and costly process. An assessment by architectural firm DJ Design predicted a cost of about $1.7 million, primarily for replacing the building’s roof and aging air conditioning units.
“I can’t imagine spending almost $2 million in repairs,” said Tucker. “That’s $1.7 million just to get it functioning again.”
The assessment process is still in process, and the board will revisit the issue at a workshop or meeting next week, Tucker said.
Checks and balances
An internal Flagler County School District audit of Adult and Community education revealed that blank checks were being pre-signed for use when one of the district’s two authorized signers wasn’t available, which is a violation of Florida Department of Education policy, which states, according to the audit report, “under no circumstances shall checks be pre-signed.”
The audit, prepared by accounting firm Brent Millikan & Company, suggested adding an extra district-approved signer, and Adult and Community Education did so, according to a reply noted in the report.
The audit also revealed that individual K-12 schools had incomplete or improperly filled-out cash receipt forms, and that money collected by teachers was often not submitted to bookkeepers within one business day of receipt, as required by the district.
The audit recommended additional training for teachers, fundraising sponsors and bookkeepers, and the district responded that it would implement supplemental training as needed.
