Accounting for Asbestos-Cleanup Costs Demanded

By Peter Schmidt

New York City officials have demanded a full accounting for cost overruns in the school system's emergency asbestos cleanup after learning that the effort is significantly over budget.

Barry E. Light, the president of the New York City School Construction Authority, this month notified Schools Chancellor Ramon C. Cortines that the cleanup effort had run out of funds, forcing him to put off assigning some high-priority work.

Mr. Light said his agency had contracted to spend $19 million more than the $64 million allocated to it by the New York City board of education in an effort to clean up boiler rooms and reopen schools that had been closed after the discovery of widespread problems in the...