Emergency repairs at three Wake County schools cost the district $6.4 million, just higher than the nearly $5.6 million originally expected.
The school board is set to discuss the final costs during a work session Tuesday afternoon.
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Work wrapped up last month at the three schools, which engineers had determined were structurally unsafe for students to occupy. District leaders have contended the schools weren't built according to their building plans, though they haven't determined who is responsible.
They've since said district and county officials now observe the construction as it progresses, which should help prevent such a thing from happening again.
The emergency work was sometimes around the clock. Students at Durant Road Elementary in Raleigh were able to start their year-round school year on time at another school and move back to their school on time.
Students at Davis Drive Elementary in Cary and Creech Road Elementary in Garner were able to start the school year only a day late.
Cost ran higher than expected at all three schools, but most of that occurred at Creech Road Elementary, which was the school that originally drew concern from inspectors and prompted a broader look at similarly constructed schools.
At Creech Road, the district spent nearly $2.6 million, according to a preliminary figure. That's more than the $2 million originally expected. The district ended up spending nearly $450,000 on foundation repair on top of the $2.1 million structural repair cost. The other two schools didn't have foundation repairs.
Problems in the schools
Superintendent Robert Taylor said problems were found in 12 classrooms and five other rooms at Creech Road: The front office, cafeteria, kitchen, stage and loading dock.
At all schools, engineers found, via X-rays of walls, that grouting and connectors were missing among beams and other structures, leaving them not bonded together. Those areas also didn't have enough rebar.
The structural problems were a new headache in the district, which has been fighting infrastructure challenges for years and hearing a bevy of concerns about them from staff, students and families.
Namely, they're dealing with poorly functioning heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems that have caused early dismissals at dozens of schools on extreme temperature days. School board members have acknowledged the problems and set aside more funding for facilities but still have about $800 million remaining in deferred maintenance.
What happens next
School board and district leaders are still working out whether they can take legal action over what they say was improper construction. Under one statute, they could be barred from making a claim more than three years after the schools were built. Under another, they would only have an avenue to sue so many years later if they could prove willful neglect on the part of the contractor -- essentially, that the contractor ignored obvious defects.