The Price of Neglect

"We never felt we had a full picture of what was being spent and that it was tracked adequately," McCarthy said.

Half of a Warm School

In a September 2006 internal memo, school maintenance officials noted that they had "a backlog of boiler repair due to the failure to treat" the water and that making the fixes would save the school system millions of dollars. But by then it was too late.

At Park View Elementary School in Northwest, the Corps had installed five boilers in 2001, but by the end of 2003, three were inoperable, according to repair records. In 2004, two boilers began leaking. And this fall, contractors who went into the school as part of yet another repair blitz said they found that mineral deposits had eroded all five boilers and destroyed many of the original components in two units.

At Spingarn, the Corps in 2001 put in four new high-pressure steam boilers from Fulton Boiler Works, a top-of-the-line model that is "built like a tank," said Frank J. Smollon Sr., president of United Energy Products in Crofton, who said he sold the units to the school for a total of $250,000 to $300,000. "It's designed to last at least 30 years, but as much as 40 years."

Last winter, the school was down to one boiler and was forced to heat one side of the building at a time, records show. "Every winter, some rooms are getting heat and others, not," said Vernon Williams, who teaches English and French.

Earlier this year, school officials gave up on repairs and brought in a temporary boiler. And they have ordered new boilers that are expected to cost at least $500,000 to install.

Down in the boiler room, Hubbard, the heating engineer, said, he had no choice but to turn on the heat, even when his requests for water treatment chemicals went unanswered.

"You know, you do what you have to do. These kids need heat, and they need to come to school," he said. "I could easily say, 'I can't fire up because I don't have chemicals, I ain't going to fire up because I don't have salt.' No. I got to fire up."

'Do It Fast'

Some school officials said the rush to rebuild schools during the Corps project led to design problems that make routine maintenance difficult. "This is what happens from going fast, trying to do it fast," said Taylor, the facilities chief.

At Randle Highlands Elementary in Southeast, maintenance workers cannot reach the motors that blow air into each classroom because water pipes were installed in the way. They said five blowers are broken, and as a result, those classrooms lack heat or air conditioning.

The building that houses Bell Multicultural Senior High and Lincoln Middle in Northwest, which opened last year, was designed with 250 independent air blowers, each requiring regular service. "We really don't have adequate staff there" to maintain them, Jackson said. Dirty filters aren't being changed, he said.

Staff members also continue to struggle with computerized heating controls at Bell and other new schools, Jackson said. "We can't control heating and cooling" in parts of Bell, he said, because "it's much more difficult to troubleshoot."

At Barnard Elementary in Northwest, rebuilt in 2003, the controls failed because the heating system had "not been properly serviced and/or maintained," internal records show.

Army Corps officials said they worked closely with school administrators on all design decisions for their projects. David Morrow, a Corps program manager, said: "We are proud of the work we did there. I think the school system has a right to be proud of the work we did there."