AUBURN - In the coming years, the Auburn Enlarged City School District will have to do necessary maintenance to one of its schools in order to be in compliance with state law.

Below the inhabitable floors of Herman Avenue Elementary school is a crawl space where numerous pipes and plumbing from the boiler room converge and then go throughout the building.

The crawl space, encompassing the entire length of the school, has only a dirt floor that is currently enclosed in plastic.

The problem is that the dirt floor contains asbestos particles that have fallen from the piping and other mechanical objects above and while the plastic prevents the asbestos from moving and becoming airborne, the state Education Department is mandating the district cover the entire crawl space with plaster concrete, otherwise known as a slurry, by July 31, 2010.

“The concern for this is not that asbestos is going anywhere,” Superintendent J.D. Pabis said, “but in order for people to go in and work on any of the mechanicals in the crawl space, they have to be protected from any of the previous - before asbestos became a hazard - any asbestos that may have come from pipe insulation, pipe coding, mechanical coverings that did fall onto the floor and into the dirt.”

In fact, district maintenance crews are not allowed in the crawl space, even if there is ever a malfunction in the piping, plumbing or machines. Only people certified in asbestos abatement are allowed in the area.

“At this point, you're not allowed there, to go down there without a suit and all that,” Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds Larry Garuccio said. “But there's no asbestos floating around the air.”

The district conducts air quality tests both inside the crawl space and in the school itself and there are no airborne asbestos particles posing a potential health risk to occupants, he said.

The district was required to lay down the concrete by this year, but because of the plastic sheet, the state Department of Labor extended the deadline until 2010.

That work can cost anywhere between $150,000 and $300,000, depending on cost of materials and supply and demand, Pabis said.

Initially, the maintenance was embedded within the near $15.7 million capital project put on hold in May after voters first defeated the proposed 2008-09 school budget.

But to be in compliance with the state, the district will have to expend funds in one of three ways, Pabis said.

The district could hire crews to install the slurry if any money remains from the 2006 capital project fund, it could be included in a new capital project if the board of education elects to put one forth, or the money could come from taxpayers from the general fund.

Pabis noted, however, that state aid will differ if the project is part of a capital project or funded by the general fund.