Despite the public flaying that the DeKalb School Board has taken over the audit of its $611 million SPLOST II construction program, parents and others say a third one-penny Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax is needed.

The schools system is contemplating going to the voters next March to ask for a third consecutive SPLOST, but the independent forensic audit released on June 1, described a program that is $115 million over budget; plagued by change orders to construction contracts; deprived of checks, balances and oversight; and lacking documentation for evaluating and awarding contracts to architects and engineering firms, among others.

Oliver Brown, an observer of the DeKalb School System who regularly attends School Board meetings, said the county's growth dictates that there has to be a third one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to build schools.

"It doesn't matter how much damage the audit does to the School Board, you've got to have a SPLOST III or you will have those kids in the trailers," said Brown, who is a grandfather.

He said that by getting the audit out in the open, the School Board is owning up to its shortcomings and promising that changes will be made.

Brown said that changes are already under way, like the termination in April of Heery/Mitchell, the project management firm blasted in the audit, and the hiring last October of construction veteran Patrician Pope to oversee the program.

He thinks these changes will make the voters more forgiving.

"DeKalb is constantly growing and we don't want long-term debt to pay for schools," Brown said. "SPLOST keeps these schools out of bond indebtednesses."

Ernest Brown, no relations to Oliver Brown, has four children in the school system and he too agrees that even though the audit raises lots of questions, the county needs to have a third SPLOST to pay for school constructions.

He said the sales tax is a better option to using property taxes to build schools.

"The Board needs to put the proper checks and balances in place," Brown said. "At least with the SPLOST, it spreads the burden around to everyone and not just to property owners."

Rubino & McGeehin Consulting Group, Inc., the Bethesda, Md.-based company hired in January by the school system to audit the program, said the School Board, which was is facing revenues of only $494 million from SPLOST II, should not have approved $611 million worth of projects.

"It gave the public the sense that the projects listed would be completed with SPLOST II funds, which is clearly not the case," the report said.

The consultants, who examined 16 projects with budgets of more than $5 million, said the school system "did not properly oversee" the performance of Heery/Mitchell.

"We did not observe written DeKalb County School System communication to Heery-Mitchell of its performance deficiencies until the middle of 2004," the consultants said.

It also had strong words for the company that is a joint venture of Heery International and E.R. Mitchell and Co., which had a detailed contract to manage the program.

"Base on our review of the Heery-Mitchell file and our conversations with Heery-Mitchell and DeKalb County School System personnel, it was apparent that Heery-Mitchell did not, in many cases, fulfill its contractual obligations nor manage the program in accordance with the terms of its contract," the consultants said.

The auditors also said that once original estimates on the projects were coming in higher than the budgeted levels, Heery/Mitchell should have re-baselined the entire program to present a more realistic budget for the schools.

They are took the system to task for placing career educator Dr. Stan Pritchett, who had no construction experience, in charge of the program.

"The selection of an individual with no construction experience prior to SPLOST, to be the DCSS point person for the Program (which included the role of oversight of Heery/Mitchell), was not in the best interests of DeKalb County School System," they said. "This role should have been filled by someone with construction experience."

The report was also critical of the School Board's decision to divvy up SPLOST funds among clusters of schools rather than sticking to areas of greatest need, which it said appeared to lead to decisions for new schools and additions that were at odds with the overall needs assessments.

Miller Grove High, the first school built with SPLOST II funding and the controversial renovations at Southwest DeKalb High attracted special mention in the audit.

Both projects were plaqued with cost overruns and Southwest DeKalb lagged so far behind, parents and students picketed the school system's North Decatur Road headquarters to pressure it to speed the project along.

The 240,000 square-foot Miller Grove High School in Lithonia, which was estimated to cost $22.7 million, came in at $29 million when it opened in January 2005. The Southwest DeKalb construction, which is in its second phase, escalated from $12.5 million to $19 million.

The auditors said the Southwest DeKalb High project was started prematurely and that it will experience the ripple effect of the decisions to proceed with the work before it was ready.

"It appears that the decision to allow demolition to commence without final drawings, permits or pricing was due partly to community pressure to initiate work on the facility," it said, rapping the School Boar's knuckles for yielding to the pressure.

The consultants offered 19 specific recommendations for the Board to consider as part of its improvements to its capital construction program and School Superintendent, Dr. Crawford Lewis said many have already been implemented.

He said he is committed to evaluating and acting on the findings as appropriate as quickly and decisively as possible.

"We will do whatever is necessary, and more, to assure confidence in the capital improvements program that is so important to our schools, our students and our county," Lewis said.

With SPLOST II, the School Board has undertaken more than $1 billion in construction projects in the last 10 years.

With the implementation of checks and balances and more oversight, Oliver Brown said taxpayer confidence can be restored.

"If the taxpayers are convinced that the proposed program can be sufficiently funded, that there is management oversight, and that they will get their money's worth, they will support another SPLOST because the need is so great," he said.

For more information visit www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/ and click on SPLOST forensic audit.