District of Columbia Public Schools

This testimony updates the status of the District of Columbia Public Schools' roof replacement work for fiscal year 1998. Congress had received information questioning the D.C. Public Schools' ability to complete the roof repairs without delaying the opening of schools in September 1998. GAO's statement covers four main areas: the availability of funds to pay for roof repairs, the current status of the roof repair process, the estimated cost of the roof repairs, and additional capital improvements in fiscal year 1999 and beyond.

GAO noted that: (1) at least $84 million is designated for roofing and other capital improvement work during FY 1998; (2) sufficient funding was available to enable DCPS to get an early start on the FY 1998 roof repairs; (3) DCPS planned to perform roof replacements at 40 schools in FY 1998; (4) DCPS records show that 38 schools will have roof replacement work in FY 1998, including 5 schools that were completed in the fall of 1997; (5) for the remaining 33 schools, DCPS will contract for roof work at 25 schools; (6) according to DCPS officials, the former Chief Operating Officer arranged to have the General Services Administration (GSA) handle the contracting details for the work at the remaining 8 D.C. schools; (7) DCPS awarded seven contracts, covering 23 of the 25 school roof projects for which it is handling the contract details; (8) the total amount of the DCPS contracts awarded was $11.6 million, all to firms from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; (9) the former DCPS Chief Executive Officer hired the Army Corps of Engineers to provide capital projects management assistance to DCPS for FY 1998; (10) as capital project manager, the Army Corps of Engineers will be on site and will be providing the superintendent of schools with weekly progress reports on the ongoing renovation work at the D.C. public schools; (11) DCPS' FY 1998 roof replacement costs are expected to be about $34 million; (12) the budgeted amount includes $28.4 million for construction contracts and about $5.8 million for design work, contract management fees charged by GSA and the Army Corps of Engineers, DCPS salaries, and an 8-percent contingency factor; (13) the FY 1999 to FY 2004 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and FY 1999 Capital Budget that the District submitted to Congress on June 1, 1998, included a 6-year total of $343.5 million in capital improvement expenditures for D.C. schools; (14) about $97 million in capital improvement expenditures is planned for FY 1999; and (15) the CIP indicates that DCPS will spend about $27 million on school roof replacements during the 6-year period, with about $14 million designated for roof replacements during FY 1999.