SmadaNek
Ken:
Good job! You always have the numbers telling the real story. The sad part is that noone cares. Here in my little town property taxes are based on 100% of market value of your home. This year they decided that my home went up $131,000 since last year. Oh, but their keeping the tax rate constant and they actually crow to the local paper that they arn't raising taxes.
Ken --
Not to defend the NJSCC, but isn't it more likely that the local districts would take on the shorter, easier jobs (eg, renovation), whereas NJSCC would manage -- frequently incompetently -- the longer, more complex projects (eg, new construction).
Paul,
I'm working on compiling the data to explore that very question. Not exactly easy, but let me give you a piece of anecdotal evidence to tide you over.
My school district is in the midst of an addition to our elementary school, increasing the size by 50% to handle an anticipated 160 student increase over the next 5 years. The total project is about (from memory) about 3,000 sqft of classroom space, plus a gymnasium, some offices, and a new kitchen. Total cost is about (again from memory) $5 million, so we are paying a little less than $1700 per SF of classroom.
In Camden, there are 5 new elementary schools on the deferred list in the SCC report. Each one has a construction cost estimate of about $30 million. If their cost per SF is the same as ours, then these are MASSIVE schools, with potentially 18,000 SF of classroom space EACH. That would enable them to "house" about 720 kids in each of the five schools, at 500 SF per classroom and 20 kids per class.
What I want to know is, "what are we (the taxpayers) buying with all this money?" I strongly suspect that (a) what the school district wants isn't necessarily what it really needs, and (b) what we are paying through SCC is much more than we should be paying.
Great work Ken! BTW, Camdem only has about 12-15 per classroom.
Just an echo of the Paul Nelson comments.
You may well be onto something because lord knows there is no reason to have any faith in the SCC, but there is an awful lot that needs to go into a good analysis.
As an example, your Camden school situation may carry some demolition costs (and time) not included in another district. Also, classrooms can have very different functions, a science classroom will likely be more expensive than typical, the same for a computer lab.
That said, I have a bit of experience with the SCC's handiwork and I would definitely say much of what they build is luxury car standard, not econobox.
Anyway, I do appreciate the effort you are making and encourage you to keep it up.
Lindsey,
Your points are well taken, and thanks for the encouragement. Considering that I was looking at elementary schools, can't say I agree that the cost per classroom should be any different. How expensive can it be to provide four walls, chairs, tables, heat, and light? The problem is that because there is no local control, and no local responsibility, they go way beyond the Cadillac and get the loaded Benz.
Commenting by HaloScan
