Category Archives for "School"

The school district presented on June 3^rd a few options for the  renovation or replacement of the existing middle and high school buildings. Below is a brief summary of the costs of the options. 

Details of the various plans were described during the school board meeting and can be seen on the video provided by the school district. Also the meeting was reported in the June 6^th edition of the Vermont Standard (online link to article not available at time of publication).

Original Plan. The original plan to replace both the middle and high school buildings was priced at ($99 million in March 2024). That proposal was voted down by the public. Today that proposal has a cost of $105 million (5% more due to 1 year change of start date – if that plan were to be selected).

Modified Original Plan. The original plan was adjusted by reducing  the size or some of the features of portions of the building. That version of the plan resulted in a price tag of $100 million.

Renovate Plan. Another plan based on renovating the existing middle and high school is quoted at $101 million - $105 million (depending on options).

Hybrid Plan. A hybrid plan based on replacing the high school portion and renovating only the interior space of the middle school comes in at $92 million.

Graph of Building Cost Options

Below is a simple graph showing the  costs of the various options.

With all the discussion and questions a few months ago about the high school building and again a week or two ago; a bit of curiosity developed.

What’s happening with school buildings in other places? Not just in the next county but elsewhere in the US and other countries. It seems like an interesting question. It also seems like a big job to find out about that, doesn’t it?

Being short on time, this investigation had to be a small job. In fact, this is not so much an investigation. It's just a small effort. The point is to get a sense of what it’s like to develop a school building in other places.

There is one thing that could be said, even before starting this. Whatever is learned, will certainly have many parts that do not apply to our local set of circumstances. There is NO doubt of that. And on the other hand…

The schools built by others, whether located here, there, or elsewhere do have quite a few similarities. They have the environmental amenities (AC, heating, ventilation, sanitation, lighting). They are built to last a reasonable time and to accommodate a student population appropriate to the local needs, but not absurdly small nor overly large.

With those thoughts in mind. Would it be reasonable to say that the schools' circumstances though not perfectly aligned would be similar enough that we may learn a few significant things?

Overhearing the thoughts of the Inner Skeptic (everyone has one, right?) - “well, maybe, you might possibly learn something, argh”. Okay Inner Skeptic, that’s close enough, let’s run with it.

Online articles and data show a fair amount of information on school construction costs. After 30 minutes of weeding through the material, a couple of nuggets were discovered.

The Good Ol’ Days - 3 years ago

One reference (linked below) shows the average school building cost in 2021 (3 years ago). The costs are given for various cities (not rural locations) around the world. The chart (below) shows the cost per square meter. Not square foot as commonly discussed. We can easily correct for that by dividing by 10 to turn that number into dollars per square foot.

 A Hockey Stick?

The graph below has nothing to do with hockey. But the shape of the graph unfortunately does looks similar to a hockey stick. The jagged line indicates the rising cost of constructing school buildings. It rises slowly from 2005 to about 2021 then rockets upward after that.

 https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/PCU236222236222

The graph is called the Producer Price Index. It’s maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the label at the top indicates, it shows the average for school construction costs from 2005 to 2024. The sharp increase started in 2021. The cause of the increase is generally given to the effects of COVID-19. Labor shortages and material shortages.

Hope on the Horizon?

After 1 hour of online digging, 2 ideas came to the surface. Have a look below, come to your own conclusions about the 2 particular ideas. But there’s more to this exercise than just that.

The bigger point is there may be more worthwhile ideas waiting to be found. But for the moment, have a look at the findings so far.

Saving Good Money

Modular home construction has been around for years. NOW, there’s modular school construction. Savings of 25% - 35% are claimed in the article referenced below. In cases where a fully modular building is not the right answer, there is a combination approach of modular and conventional construction. The article referenced was produced by a manufacturer of modular school buildings. But it shows projects that have actually been constructed. This idea may have some concepts worth considering. https://www.americanmodular.com/modular-school-construction-costs/

Saving Really BIG Money

Bundle multiple school construction projects and save money based on “volume” pricing. The article referred to a Maryland school system. For Vermont, this may be an idea appropriate at the state level. https://www.governing.com/finance/prince-georges-county-saves-big-by-bundling-school-construction

Conclusion: Take-away Message

This short article shows 2 things. One known. One (or maybe a few) that are new.

1. Construction costs are much higher than just 3 years ago.  
2. One hour of online research with an open mind resulted in the discovery of 2 cost-saving ideas that are perhaps worth consideration.

Imagine what might happen with a few more motivated folks and a bit of time.

Learn Before You Vote

There was a gathering of people from Barnard on February 15th to hear from 2 school board members and 2 school district administrators about a proposed new middle/high school. The building is intended to replace the existing middle/high school building.

The meeting was well attended both in-person and online. The format of the presentation allowed for questions and comments throughout. The attendees took full advantage to voice their thoughts about the proposed $100 million building project (the bond amount would actually be for $99 million).

Quite naturally, many of the questions touched on: (a) justification of the need for a new building; (b) the size and configuration of the proposed building, and; (c) the cost and cost reductions.

A vote will happen on town meeting day, Tuesday, March 5th in all towns that make up the Mountain Views Supervisory Union (formerly, Windsor Central Supervisory Union; WCSU).

There has been a lot of talk in the media and the public in recent weeks about property taxes and the potential tax surge. The vote on this project is not directly related to the possible tax increase that you'll see in your mailbox this summer.

If this project is approved, you would see the tax increase in 2027. The school district's finance director provided an Excel spreadsheet that you can download (here) and estimate the tax impact of the project on you. If you are not able to run that spreadsheet, a simplified tax estimator is included on this website (here); the answers it provides are based on results from the school finance director's spreadsheet.

You can watch the presentation and hear the questions from Barnard residents on the video below.

See the LIST of QUESTIONS below the video.
CLICK on a QUESTION and JUMP directly to that part of the video.

VOTING DAY

See the LIST of ​TOPICS below the video.
CLICK on a ​TOPIC and JUMP directly to that part of the video.

See the LIST of ​TOPICS below the video.
CLICK on a ​TOPIC and JUMP directly to that part of the video.