"We used the study to determine which schools we would replace in what order," says Drew Wilson, who oversees buildings for the Weber School District.

Some districts remain further ahead than others and that has long been a concern for Utah's earthquake experts.

So, they were happy to see that the state might finally undertake a school-by-school review of seismic safety, until lawmakers nixed legislation setting up the study.

But now a statewide advisory panel might have come up with a way to start tackling the problem.

Going into the 2008 Legislature, members of the Utah Seismic Safety Commission had every reason to hope the Legislature would support their bill and $500,000 to fund it for the first year.

The measure would have set standards for assessing all 800 buildings that serve more than 500,000 public and charter school students. It also created a board to draft a master to-do list of school buildings that need bolstering or replacement most.

Nearly six in 10 Utah schools were built before modern seismic standards started being developed in the 1970s. And that means many are built of masonry that might not hold up against big earthquakes.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake might kill as many as 500 students in the Salt Lake City School District alone, says Rep. Larry Wiley, a city building inspector and Democratic lawmaker who sponsored the seismic safety bill.

"We can't afford to let this go on and on and on and pretend nothing's going to happen," says Wiley. "Dragging our feet is not going to help."

The Utah PTA and the Structural Engineers Association of Utah testified on behalf of the bill.

The PTA's Debbie Tabor reminded a House committee that schools serve as a community resource in many ways in addition to educating children. A statewide assessment would give schools tools to prioritize buildings that need renovation or replacement, she said.

"This would help us to better address them, so [schools] can be a place of refuge not only for our students but our communities," she said.

The committee passed the bill 6-1. Hours earlier, a magnitude 6 earthquake had struck Wells, Nev., making ruins of some brick buildings downtown. The brick high school, a few blocks away, had to be closed.

But Utah's schools seismic bill ended up in shambles.

Division of Facilities and Construction Management director Gregg D. Buxton, a former lawmaker, objected as legislative budget-makers drafted their spending-priority list. He questioned the liability the state would face if it identified earthquake-vulnerable buildings without spending the billions of dollars needed to address the problems immediately.

Buxton could not be reached for comment Friday. But his remarks apparently prompted the seismic schools bill getting scratched from the funding list.

Larry Newton of the state board of education pointed out that many districts already have prioritized their building programs with earthquakes in mind.

But he adds: "It's very complicated for the school districts." Without funding to cover the cost of seismic reviews and upgrades, the schools are forced to look at money needed for educating young Utahns.

"If you do an unfunded mandate, it does no good," Newton says.

"My question is: How are you going to pay for it?"

Earlier this month the state earthquake commission, the state's seismic conscience since 1993, decided to do what it can to pick up the slack.

Members agreed to include schools as they carry out a separate seismic safety bill that the Legislature did pass this year.

The commission's plan is to find out what seismic assessments have already been done for all of the state's 3,200 buildings, find any gaps and develop a statewide priority list, based on uniform standards.

Looking for funding to cover this work may be part of the recommendations. So, too, may be the volunteer efforts of structural engineers.

While no one has a good answer for Newton's question about paying for the upgrades schools need, the commission is confident a statewide review is a valuable step forward.

"Yeah, it's going to cost a lot of money," says Wiley. "But it's going to cost you more dollars tomorrow than today."

fahys@sltrib.com