The CMS Promises Made, Promises Kept construction newsletter is “designed to help keep you informed on the district’s construction program and bring you news about innovative ways we are spending taxpayer dollars.” Let’s take a closer look at those “innovative ways” they are spending taxpayer dollars.

The newsletter says that CMS had the lowest 4th quarter 2007 bids for an 800-seat elementary school ($10.6 million bid). They compare that figure to Union ($13.7 million bid), Harnett ($14.6 million bid), and Wake ($16+ million bid) counties. A lot can happen in a quarter (oil!), so I do not put too much stock in the comparison. I did get a chuckle out of the fact that CMS construction folk are so willing to throw their colleagues from Union, Harnett, and Wake under the bus, so to speak.

I couldn’t help but notice that, according to DPI’s School Planning Division, Johnston County bid an elementary school a week after CMS did last year. While CMS’s Belmeade Drive Elementary ($10.6 million) came in lower than Johnston’s Princeton Elementary ($12.6 million), the Johnston County school will accommodate 255 more students and will be over 24,000 SF larger than the CMS elementary school. Princeton Elementary bid at $11 per square foot less than Belmeade Drive Elementary.

And nobody does it better than Forsyth County. In January 2008, Forsyth’s Caleb’s Creek Elementary School had a bid cost of $11.3 million for a school that is roughly 18,000 SF larger than the typical CMS elementary school.