School Planning and Management, 2015
Constructing a school building is a process that invokes high, important and inspiring ideals. But getting a school approved, financed, built, open and operating is about the details, and details pop in the newly constructed A. Chester Redshaw Elementary School in New Brunswick, N. J.
School Planning and Management, 2015
Piecemeal changes over the years to Lake Central High School, in Indiana, tell a story about a district that has grown and changed substantially since the school’s construction in the 1960s. So when district officials launched a major, multi-phase project — about $120-million of a larger bond-funded initiative — to renovate and enlarge the school, the program to unite the structure included the building envelope enclosing it.
School Planning and Management, 2015
A $23-million high school in Wyoming slated to open in mid-January has been delayed for two months. The contractor on the project blamed weather, change orders, design changes and other factors.
The district superintendent disputed the contractor’s explanation.
School Planning and Management, 2015
Flooring can provide a durable foundation for an entire interior, help foster learning in spaces throughout a school, and serve as a way to make a bright, bold and beautiful design statement. The right flooring solution can be yet another vivid point of interest in renovation and new construction projects.
Standouts can include vivid, bold colors and patterns, flooring installed in renovation projects that adroitly complements, without attempting to duplicate, original flooring; as well as contrasts of colors and materials to denote different uses of spaces.
School Planning and Management, 2015
School Construction is once again a major player in the economy of the United States. More than $14 billion worth of school construction - including new buildings and additions to, and upgrading of, existing buildings - was put in place in 2014, a five percent increase over the previous year and the fourth year in a row that spending for school construction has increased.
Although federal legislation has focused attention on upgrading curricula, teacher qualifications and testing standards, school districts continue to fall behind on modernizing schools. A National Education Association study in 2000 estimated the cost to repair and modernize America’s schools was more than $300 billion. Many school districts are hard-pressed to fund needed upgrades, so they postpone major changes as long as possible. However, rapid changes in technology, new government mandated programs and unsafe conditions are making delay increasingly detrimental.
Beatrice, 2015
One of the keys to successfully managing a renovation on a large college campus is dealing skillfully with scheduling concerns. There are a variety of ways to do this.
It is important, for example, to identify potential constraints early, build them into the project schedule, and include them in contractor agreements. Understanding that construction work was to be completed in a research lab, planners found it pivotal to connect with the dominant user groups, which were the researchers. Their schedules were reviewed, including when they would be using the labs or when they would be in their offices, and to ensure that schedules aligned to avoid project disruption or delay. This allowed project teams to plan ahead and ultimately create an accurate time frame that was included in contractor agreements.
Beatrice, 2015
A renovation on a large college campus presents unique challenges. For one thing, a range of groups play special roles, including administration, professors, students, subcontractors, architects, engineers, and the surrounding community. At the same time, college renovations involve such typical everyday construction responsibilities as understanding the preexisting structure, managing multiple funding sources, managing waste and material, determining storage space, and organizing shifts. Other major keys to success include managing occupant concerns, scheduling issues, the budget, and communication.
Fickes, 2014
When evaluating responses to bid requests, facility managers often select the lowest qualified bid. It makes perfect sense. Why would anyone pay more — in taxpayer dollars — than necessary?
In fact, some school facility managers are discovering the utterly anti-intuitive concept that paying more to build a school can reduce its overall total cost of ownership (TCO).
Combs, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Since 2010, the Comptroller’s Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST) has produced ratings of one
to five stars for Texas school districts and campuses. Created in response to 2009 legislation, we base these ratings on operational expenditures (the input) and academic progress (the output).
For its spending component, FAST uses operational expenditures — funded in large part by a district’s maintenance and operations (M&O) tax — which is spending directly related to teaching students.
Many school districts also levy an interest and sinking (I&S) tax to pay off debt issued for capital purchases (primarily school facilities). This construction survey is an effort to provide Texas school districts
and their taxpayers an opportunity to compare side-by-side new school construction costs over a multi-year sample.
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