TAMPA — Crushing debt and deferred maintenance are coming home to roost in the Hillsborough County public schools, where faulty air conditioners are leaving some children too hot to learn.
The problem is a symptom of school system in the grips of a growing financial crisis, cutting costs as it struggles to maintain its reserves and keep up with debt payments on long-ago borrowing to build schools.
"We're in a situation where we're dire straits," chief operating officer Chris Farkas told School Board members Tuesday during the normally routine ritual of voting on a five-year capital improvements plan.
Schools built in the late 1990s are seeing wear and tear, made worse by years of neglect. And the district is still paying for them, having borrowed more than $900 million for school construction to accommodate growth in the boom years.
The payments on that debt come to $65 million a year, taking up much of the district's capital budget, which is used for maintenance and repairs. To help cover repairs in the past, the district was able to tap into its general fund, used for operating expenses. But that practice has ended as officials work to stabilize the general fund following last year's disclosure that its reserves had dropped by more than $200 million over four years.
Increasing revenue isn't an easy option as the state limits districts on how much they can raise through property taxes.
Meanwhile, teachers and parents across Hillsborough are complaining about broken air conditioning systems. And the list of needed repairs is so long that district officials say they could not find enough vendors to fix or replace them even if they had the money.
Some of the consequences:
• The list of maintenance that should be done across the district has grown to nearly $800 million, made worse by another $67 million to be added this year. Recommended maintenance on roofs and air conditioning systems would cost $71 million this year, but the district can only afford to spend $4 million to renovate the air conditioning system at one school, Potter Elementary.
• There were 5,600 air conditioning repair requests in the first six weeks of this school year. Last year it was 5,000, and that's double what it was in the beginning of 2011.
• Twenty-five to 30 schools need complete air conditioning replacements. Another 50 are also in bad shape. And the rest suffer from a lack of routine maintenance.
"There's no preventative maintenance when every single one of your techs is trying to keep kids cool," Farkas said.
Farkas has warned the board about unfunded capital projects in years past. And there was no shortage of culprits Tuesday as board members looked for where to point fingers.
They blamed former superintendent MaryEllen Elia, who was fired in January 2015, for keeping them in the dark about financial matters.
They blamed the Legislature for awarding much of the state's capital money to charter schools. Member Susan Valdes cited rising payroll costs.
Social media came in for criticism, as two Facebook sites in recent weeks carried angry posts from teachers, some with pictures of their classroom thermostats.
But the bottom line, the members realized before they approved the capital plan unanimously, is that they face tough decisions to cut costs.
Should they redraw boundaries and close some of their under-enrolled schools? Board member Doretha Edgecomb warned about resegregation, especially if magnet programs are affected.
Can they ask voters for a sales tax hike? That isn't realistic, chairwoman April Griffin said, as long as the public lacks confidence in the district's finances.
Chief business officer Gretchen Saunders described a type of bond issue that involves the state and requires a corporate match.
"I don't like to be in debt," said member Melissa Snively.
But she did not rule it out.
There was also talk of buying new air conditioning systems with money from the county's Community Investment Tax. But that money is earmarked to buy new school buses, which also are badly needed.
The afternoon discussion on the capital plan and the air conditioners followed a morning workshop about cost-cutting in transportation.
To save millions of dollars there, the district is preparing to cut back on "courtesy" busing to students who live within two miles of a school.
A survey of bus stops will take place over the next two months, and in December, middle and high school parents will be notified of stops to be eliminated in the 2017-18 school year.
Elementary bus stops will be cut back a year later. There will be an appeals process for parents who contend there are hazardous walking conditions in their neighborhoods.
Some board members drew comparisons between the capital improvement crunch and the transportation crisis that got their attention in 2014.
In both cases, matters are made worse by a shortage of repair workers.
"AC systems are like cars," Farkas said. "Getting qualified staff that is trained on that is a big challenge for our AC department.
"We're in Florida and the reality is, you can step outside and get a lot more money to do the same job."
Contact Marlene Sokol at (813) 226-3356 or msokol@tampabay.com. Follow @marlenesokol.