Several members of the facilities task force were also on hand. School Board member Tichi L. Pinkney Eppes, 9th District, and former City Councilman Marty Jewell joined the tour in South Side.

They toured Bellevue Elementary in Church Hill, Binford Middle in the Fan and G.H. Reid Elementary and Elkhardt Middle, both near the intersection of Hull Street Road and Chippenham Parkway.

“This isn’t just about us showing bad facilities,” he said as the group departed from the Ashe Center, itself one of the more decrepit school facilities in the city. “It’s about understanding the assets we have and some of the challenges we face.”

Many of those challenges have been chronicled in a series of school facility reports since 2002.

Early this month, Kranz combined those reports into one and adjusted priorities based on current conditions. He estimated the school system has $35 million in immediate facility needs, mostly because of leaking roofs and past-their-prime heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

On Monday, Jones held a news conference to say the city could not afford to foot such a bill but that he might be willing to work with school officials to pursue nontraditional financing for some of the projects.