Committee approves emergency funds for school inspections
April Washington, Rocky Mountain News
Published August 22, 2007 at midnight
The state's public school inspection program got a shot in the arm Monday when lawmakers approved nearly $350,000 in emergency funds for additional inspectors.
The Joint Budget Committee approved two separate requests for emergency funding to pay for temporary building code inspectors hired this summer to reinspect schools and meet the demands of ongoing school construction projects.
The Department of Labor and Employment, which oversees the Division of Oil and Public Safety, requested $271,272 for building inspectors. The division requested another $78,312 to hire two new fire safety inspectors.
Citing a concern over the school inspection program, JBC Chairman Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, called the funding a "temporary fix" for a program that has been poorly staffed and underfunded since its inception.
The push to shore up the program comes two months after a scathing state audit found the division had done a poor job inspecting nearly 200 public schools annually, including giving up to 70 schools a green light to open without final inspections.
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