Oct. 10, 2003 – The 24th Legislature appropriated $200,000 more than two years ago for the rehabilitation of two Leonard Dober Elementary School buildings, and Gov. Charles W. Turnbull signed the measure into law in May of that year. Now, Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone wants to know why no work has been done on the structures.
The 24th Legislature also appropriated another $200,000 to relocate classes from the J. Antonio Jarvis Elementary School Annex, also known as the Conrad Building, to the main building so that the annex could be rehabilitated. Malone also wants to know what they hasn't happened.
Both pieces of legislation specified that the money appropriated was to "remain available until expended," Malone said. The Dober money was to come from the Interest Revenue Fund, and the Jarvis money, from the Industrial Development Fund.
The senator, who is vice chair the Legislature's Education and Youth Committee, said in a release issued on Friday that he wrote to William Frett, St. Thomas-St. John district school superintendent, on Thursday asking about the status of the Dober funds.
He had already written Frett on Sept. 18 asking about the Jarvis Annex funds.
Without the use of the two Dober buildings, the school "is bursting at the seams," Malone said in this week's letter. "The rehabilitation of the two buildings will rectify the issue of congestion and overcrowding," he said.
Malone pointed out that the most recent report to the Senate's Post Audit Division, at the end of June, showed a balance of $1.7 million in the Interest Revenue Fund.
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