❒ Board nixes dental coverage for itself

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

The Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees voted Thursday to OK a report outlining an array of repairs and expenses the district will face in the next five years.

Trustees approved the Five-Year Facility Ass-essment Report and gave Superintendent Janice Adams direction on how to begin seeking funding options.

In other business, the board withdrew consideration to have trustees’ dental benefits restored.

The five-year report lists items in three categories: deferred maintenance, major repair and replacement, estimated to cost $13,294,800; deferred maintenance adjusted for capital improvements — a higher level of deferred maintenance — estimated to cost $32,664,804; and deferred maintenance adjusted for capital improvements and new construction, or facility needs that would be new to the district, at an estimated cost of $49,611,259.

Among the specific needs in the report are upgrades to student support facilities — which include music, athletics and the arts — portable classrooms, energy efficiency and health, safety and security, according to Chief Business Official Tim Rahill.

Under the deferred maintenance section, Rahill cited building remodeling including “windows and doors, flooring and carpet and tile. We have concrete and asphalt in our playgrounds and in other parking lots.”

The report is “really all-encompassing, all the different facility needs we have,” he said.

Included in the third option of facility needs and improvements was the cost of improving Benicia High School’s athletic facilities, improvements that have been discusses since 2011 and estimated to cost $7 million. Other athletics facilities, including tennis courts, also need work, Rahill said.

John Isom of Isom Advisors talked about funding sources, saying many districts have paused maintenance because of the recession and lack of funding.

“There’s a lot of districts in your shoes right now that are assessing ways to pay for these needed improvements,” he said.

“Frankly there’s not a lot of funding options.” Proposition 39 funding provides dollars for energy efficiency, he said — “a small slice of the pie, but a slice nonetheless.”

Adams also recommended the board reinstate dental benefits for trustees, which they had prior to 2010. Annual cost to the district for all five trustees would be $8,288.40.

But Trustee André Stewart balked, saying, “I can’t support this. We’re just talking about needing $50 million and … I’m just having a tough time with this,” he said.

“I think it’s not a good time to do this now,” board President Rosie Switzer said, moving the item be withdrawn.

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