Hawai'i public schools' backlog of repair and maintenance projects has grown to $524.5 million, reversing several years of improvement.

The figure, already up 14 percent from this time last year, will probably grow further as the Department of Education assembles its priority list, according to a report prepared for the Legislature.

The backlog has been a problem for more than a decade, leaving schools waiting years for some repairs.

Maggie Cox, a Board of Education member from Kaua'i and a retired public school principal, said it is clear to her that the condition of the school affects the performance of the students. Discipline and educational challenges are more difficult when the school is in bad repair, she said at a BOE meeting yesterday on Kaua'i.

"Being in a nice physical environment adds to the climate of the school and the way kids behave. There is a feeling that school is a good place to be, a place you want to come to. It doesn't have to be a new school. A well-maintained school is nearly as good," she said.

The DOE has said it needs $100 million to $200 million a year just to stay even, and more if it hopes to reduce the backlog, which includes leaky roofs, cracked sidewalks and dirty restrooms.

But the allotment from this year's Legislature was $75 million, forcing the DOE to pare back on planned projects.

Big Island board member Herbert Watanabe said the increasing backlog is an issue of great concern, in part because so much of the school infrastructure is aged, "and buildings are getting older every year."

State House and Senate leaders and Gov. Linda Lingle have suggested they will likely propose using some of the state's budget surplus to relieve the school repair and maintenance backlog.

Within the next few weeks, House lawmakers are expected to tour schools on O'ahu to see conditions and start to set priorities. But completely retiring the backlog would swallow nearly all of the projected surplus, so lawmakers will probably give the department more money for school repairs but balance it with spending on other state projects, including money for other education initiatives.

The DOE's report to the Legislature asks for $160 million to complete a six-year program to renovate 232 schools that would be at least 25 years old by 2007.

By making renovations that include the classrooms, restrooms and exteriors of the buildings, the DOE expects to eliminate 70 percent of the costs of old repairs from the backlog.

While addressing the classrooms, the DOE will also expand a restroom restoration project it began at four schools last year. Instead of costly renovations that must comply with American With Disabilities Act requirements, the DOE is concentrating on making existing restrooms clean and odor-free, with working fixtures.

In addition to deep cleaning and repairing broken fixtures, the restroom project includes retraining the custodial staff and increasing educational efforts so students help keep the facilities clean.

All schools receiving a classroom renovation will also have their restrooms restored.

The repair and maintenance backlog soared in the 1990s, fed by falling maintenance allocations from the Legislature during the decade's economic downturn. At one point it reached about $800 million.

Thousands of projects await action, some of which have languished for years from the time they were first requested.

Schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto said there are two issues — normal maintenance and periodic major maintenance. If you lag on the first, the more expensive major maintenance just gets bigger and more expensive, she said.

"The reality is you're going to have to get the resources. If we fail to act on regular maintenance, then the repairs get more expensive," Hamamoto said.

About 31 percent of the backlog consists of recurring projects, such as reroofing, resurfacing walkways and repainting the interior and exterior of the buildings. Of these, roofing issues account for $83.7 million of the backlog.

When determining which problems to tackle first, the DOE first funds projects that must be addressed because of regulatory laws or statewide initiatives. Last year, money for classroom renovation projects, electrical upgrades and air-conditioning replacements was also taken from the top before the rest of the appropriation was distributed across the districts.

O'ahu BOE member Paul Vierling said the board is considering a number of innovative ideas for improving its ability to deal with the declining condition of schools. One would be to get ownership of the land under schools, which is now held by other state agencies, so that schools have more alternatives. These could include combining schools and selling off unneeded assets, mortgaging school properties or acquiring bonds based on the value of the properties held.

"There's other ways to do it than the way we currently do it," he said.

Other options would be to reduce the state's dependence on traditional schools, putting more support behind charter schools, which often function with much less of a need for brick-and-mortar facilities than traditional public schools, Vierling said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com and Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.