For over a year, I have been sparring with the Wake County Schools staff over school construction costs. I have argued that WCPSS spends more than average on new school buildings, and each time, the school system has denied the charge. Once again, I have been proven correct – this time by the school system itself.
Earlier this year, the Wake County Citizens Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC) commissioned two independent consultants to compare Wake’s school construction costs to six comparable school systems. This report concluded that Wake County’s per-square foot elementary and high school costs – adjusted for local construction costs and time – were higher than average. Cost per student gaps were even greater. Predictably, the media largely ignored these findings, and the school system complained that the methodology was faulty.
At yesterday’s CFAC meeting, WCPSS offered a rebuttal to the CFAC report. The concluded,
The findings of the CFAC report shows that Wake County Schools builds schools above the direct average and weighted averages. Our information does not conflict with that, but does show that the magnitude of the discrepancies is much closer.
Details of the WCPSS report and a synthesis of all the cost studies will be forthcoming. The public deserves to know the truth about WCPSS’s construction costs, and I will be the messanger…again.
