DESCRIPTORS Educational Facilities Improvement; Elementary Secondary

This report summarizes some of the recent reports on school building needs and describes the initiatives in New York State's budget designed to address them. It also describes the environment in which school building and maintenance decisions are made, with particular attention to factors discouraging or impeding successful stratregies for school constrictuion and maintenance. Drawing upon this analysis and the results of audits, the report includes recommendations for improving the system. Some recommendations for meeting the needs in school building and maintenance include better enforcement of existing regular requirements, correcting the problems with aid formulas, reforming the existing annual inspections in school buildings, improved capital planning, mandated relief actions to decrease the cost of school construction and rehabilitation, and better reporting of facility conditions. Detailed tables list the average age of buildings, 1996 to 1997 enrollment, 10-year capital spending, and other information on each school district. (RJM) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document.