Building code enforcement lax in schools

The Jefferson County Joint School District last week settled a lawsuit against two contractors that built Midway Middle School and Jefferson Elementary School in Rigby.

But the issues that led to the lawsuit are far from resolved.

The two schools have been in poor condition since opening in 2002. The roofs leak, the insulation was poorly installed, fire sprinkler systems are inadequate, some doors don’t meet building codes, the bathrooms are not Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant, and it’s questionable whether the roofs can support rooftop mechanical equipment, according to reports in the Idaho Falls Post Register.
The district settled with the contractors, Pacific West and Harris Brothers Construction, but has not yet settled with the buildings’ architect, Jay Christopherson of Utah.
The Idaho Division of Building Safety, which by law must review school building plans, is investigating what happened to the Rigby schools and analyzing its building plan review program to try to prevent future problems, Public Information Officer Bill Hatch said.
The main problem is the Division of Building Safety doesn’t perform a final building inspection for schools, he said. Without doing the final inspection, the division has no way of enforcing conditions for approval or ensuring buildings are built to code.
Inspections are left up to local jurisdictions, Hatch said. Most city and county building departments do that, he said. But not all Idaho cities and counties have building inspection programs. Jefferson County didn’t have one when Midway and Jefferson were built.
Without a city building inspection program, it’s up to schools to make sure that a certified building inspector or a licensed architect or engineer inspects the building. The division has no way of knowing whether schools have actually been inspected, Hatch said.
Jefferson School District Business Manager Wade Hirschi refused to answer questions, including who performed the final inspection.
Division of Building Safety Administrator Kelly Pearce wants the division to have the authority to perform the final inspections on all school buildings. It would make more sense for the entity that reviews the plans to inspect the buildings as well, Hatch said, and the division already performs annual inspections of all schools in the state after they are inspected to check on maintenance and safety issues.
But it’s too late to introduce legislation to that effect for next year’s legislative session, Hatch said. And the division will have to fight the Association of Idaho Cities for it. The Association of Idaho Cities is working on legislation that would return plan review powers completely to the cities.
Currently, state statute allows cities with building departments to review plans in addition to the Division of Building Safety, but any changes the cities suggest must be approved by the Division of Building Safety, Deputy Administrator Steve Keys said. Meanwhile, the school district has to pay fees to both the city and state for plan review.
Keys expects the school districts to ask the Legislature to make only one review required. The Association of Idaho Cities anticipated the move and started working on proposed legislation that would get the Division of Building Safety out of the process.
The problem with that, Keys said, is that there are still cities and counties out there with no building departments. And even if the Division of Building Safety maintained plan review authority in those jurisdictions while other cities were able to review school plans, there would be no consistency in school buildings throughout the state, he said.
Some city building departments are poorly prepared to take on the task since they build schools about once every 25 years, he said. Building officials would be less familiar with school building codes. Also, there’s a greater degree of separation between the Division of Building Safety and local interests than there sometimes is with local building departments, he said. That separation can be healthy if building departments are pressured to ease requirements.
He cited the Nampa School District, which in the 1990s built three elementary schools and Skyview High School, all of which had faulty fire alarm systems. That issue led the Legislature to give plan review authority for schools to the Division of Building Safety, Keys said.
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To contact the author of this story, send e-mail to:  lora.volkert@idahobusiness.net.