Federally funded Indian schools fail to manage deferred maintenance, leading to health and safety risks April 23, 2024
A gigantic backlog of maintenance projects continues to shackle the nation’s K-12 schools with monumental challenges. But for all the problems deferred maintenance creates for maintenance and engineering managers, it does not affect districts equally. Majority-black districts and Hispanic-serving institutions face even tougher challenges, and they are not alone.
Federally funded Indian schools are failing to manage their deferred maintenance programs, leading to delays in maintenance and health and safety risks, according to The Dakota Scout.
A review of records by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General found that deferred maintenance at Bureau of Indian Education schools is marred by funding delays, limited project management capacity, unreliable work order data and a system that categorized routine operational duties as deferred maintenance. The review found work orders for deferred maintenance that had not been completed more than two decades after they were approved.
The Bureau of Indian Education funds 183 elementary and secondary schools in 23 states. Of those, 128 are controlled by tribal governments. The schools educate tens of thousands of students. The OIG reviewed the deferred maintenance processes at 10 schools.
By Dan Hounsell, Senior Editor
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
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