What sort of repairs go into keeping the water flowing in Rochester City School District’s bathrooms?
If you ask the district, that’s on a strictly need to know basis.
District officials claim that the dozens of work orders pertaining to bathroom repairs – including those involving outside contractors – are interagency communication not subject to public disclosure. The state’s Committee on Open Government says that is wrong.
The question of how the district does its business arose after WXXI News got a tip in December that maintenance of toilets, sinks, and urinals in several city schools were plugged up by a sizable backlog of open orders. In some cases that allegedly left janitors to purge toilets using buckets.
WXXI News submitted a Freedom of Information Law request on Dec. 12, 2023, for all work orders involving RCSD bathrooms, including cost of repair, date of request, date of closure, details of the repair, and any open work orders.
The district’s response, sent Friday, spans 120 pages and shows RCSD piped $87,671.77 into restroom repair and maintenance between 2020 and the end of 2023. An additional $1 million was spent on bathrooms as part of the district’s capital improvement project during that same period, according to the provided documents.