Science lab repairs resolved too slowly, ADA forms poorly maintained: Baltimore County Schools audits

Baltimore County Public Schools audits released earlier this month found that work orders for safety-related equipment in science labs are not resolved promptly enough and decision files for disability-related accommodation requests from employees were missing paperwork.

The school system’s internal probe of its Office of Science, Health, and Physical Education found this month that “safety-related” work orders for science lab equipment were resolved in an average of 50 days, with some being resolved on the same day and other repairs taking months. The audit notes that the average repair time for “two of the most critical issues related to student safety” — inoperable eye wash stations as well as sink repairs — took longer than that 50-day average.

The audit of the systemwide science office focused on a total of 79 work orders for science classroom equipment. The work orders, which were created from the start of 2023 up to April 9 of this year, included repairs to a “critical” issue with a laboratory eye wash station that had not been made in over a year by the time auditors concluded their investigation in late May. The June report distinguishes “critical” issues with eye wash stations, where the equipment is inoperable, from less-urgent work orders where the eye wash is still usable.

Of the 27 critical issues with eye wash stations, which can be used to flush the eyes after exposure to dangerous materials in the lab, the average repair took more than two months, the audit says. Sinks, which are used to wash hands and supplies in labs, represented over a quarter of the lab equipment work orders and took about 52 days on average to repair. By May 22 of this year, a “work order related to gas flow” had been open for 177 days, the audit says, also noting that a critical eye wash repair and a sink issue were also still unresolved after several months.

The report says that the maintenance section of BCPS’ Department of Facilities Management and Strategic Planning has roughly 1,000 work orders open “at any point” and receives about 40,000 each year. It says there is “currently no formal prioritization process for science safety equipment work orders,” and those repairs “are not considered to be emergency work orders.”

The audit report says science office leadership agreed to communicate with facilities staff to design a system “to address the safety concerns in school buildings” and establish quarterly review dates “to address ongoing challenges.”

Gboyinde Onijala, a spokesperson for the county school system, said prioritizing lab safety repairs is “certainly something we’re committed to doing.”

Auditors commended the systemwide science department leadership for conducting safety checks during visits to science classes in roughly a third of the school system’s middle and high schools during the current fiscal year. They also applauded the office for instituting a mandatory “Safety Walk” twice a year where science department members tour science areas together to identify safety concerns and review lab safety equipment.

The audit does not make any mention of students performing lab work in classrooms that didn’t have functioning safety equipment. Onijala said that she doesn’t believe any lab work would have been performed in those classrooms, noting that type of discretion would be a product of the science office’s mandatory safety training — another focus of the audit.

The audit report commends the science office for developing a detailed chemical hygiene plan as well as safety training for staff, and for requiring students to sign a safety contract before participating in the labs. But it also found that just over half of lab staff members were submitting necessary documentation that they completed training on the chemical hygiene plan this fiscal year, despite being sent several reminders. Only half of newly appointed science department chairs submitted documentation that they completed a required laboratory safety course, the audit says, concluding that the low response rates mean the school system can’t validate that lab employees are “properly trained to mitigate science safety risks.”

It notes that the school system’s science director “feels that the training has occurred even though the documentation has not been provided.”

To resolve that issue, management agreed to communicate the submission deadline to all department chairs and teachers and follow up when the documentation isn’t provided, and to include time for safety training during teacher preparation week, the report says.

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The probe of the science office was one of four reports publicly released by the school system’s internal audit office earlier this month. A separate audit involving part of the school system’s human resources department found that documentation of employees’ requests for Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations was “inconsistently maintained.”

The audit of the school system’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity found that about a fifth of the ADA requests from June 2020 through June 2023 that they examined were missing the accommodation request form. More were missing certain HR documents, and 63 of the 67 requests were missing the employee’s job description, the report says.

Auditors blamed the ADA documentation issues on “management changes, staffing shortages, and the increase in requests related to the COVID pandemic.” The HR department said similarly, noting in a “general statement” included in the audit report that their EEO office “has faced significant staffing challenges during the past two years, including position vacancies and high employee turnover within a small office.” Management agreed to conduct a “routine review of select ADA files” and run training sessions focused on certain accommodations as well as office review processes.

Another recent audit report found that teachers for the system’s sunsetting eLearning program “ did not consistently take attendance,” also criticizing BCPS’ attendance-taking system for requiring manual adjustments and finding that staff “inconsistently uses” the wrong grading code for missing assignments. eLearning, a synchronous program for students in grades six to 12, is set to be combined next school year with the system’s Virtual Learning Program, a separate model in which students are co-enrolled with their school, to create a single online learning program. BCPS management said it would review attendance-taking processes for both of those programs before launching the new system and would revise the school system’s grading manual ahead of next school year.

The school system’s audit office also released a report on a probe of Baltimore County schools’ English and Language Arts curriculum. Auditors found “no reportable issues with the process for selection, procurement, implementation, and evaluation of ELA curriculum” but issued several commendations to English and Language Arts staff.