Board of Education school-construction costs are out of control – with the city spending at least 414 percent more to build high schools than New Jersey and the rest of New York state, a report released yesterday found.
And the planned costs of building new early-grade schools is 316 percent higher per seat in the city than neighboring areas.
“The costs per square foot to construct new schools in the city exceeds that of some of the most expensive new office buildings,” the analysis by the Independent Budget Office revealed.
The report also found that the costs to build high schools ballooned 90 percent over the Board of Education’s original estimates in 1999, and 70 percent to construct elementary schools over the Board of Ed’s original estimates in 1999.
Renovation projects also busted their budgets. For example, the costs of window replacements skyrocketed 154 percent, and the price of exterior masonry shot up 248 percent.
The escalating costs forced Chancellor Harold Levy and the Board of Education in December to delay scores of projects in order to close a $2.3 billion shortfall in their capital building program.
“The construction costs are huge. It certainly seems unusually higher than New Jersey and New York state as a whole,” said IBO spokesman Doug Turetsky.
Scarce real estate in the Big Apple is much more expensive than other parts of the region. But, Turetsky said, “Site costs alone don’t explain the difference.”
Even building experts were taken aback that Big Apple construction costs were so far off the charts.
“I am surprised that [the disparity] is so big. But I haven’t looked at the report,” said Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress.
The report noted the cost for building a new elementary school is $597 per square foot – or $78,812 for each new school seat. In New Jersey, the cost is $203 per square foot and $24,256 per seat.
City high-school projects cost $657 per square foot for a total cost per seat of $110,456. In Jersey, it costs $145 per square foot and just $25,209 per high-school seat. Turetsky said the city is now building smaller high schools, which accounts for a portion of the yawning cost differential.
The report cited Levy’s prior testimony to explain some of the reasons for the cost increases – higher-than-expected construction bids, construction delays, low cost estimates for site work, and other problems.
“The report reinforces what the chancellor has said,” said Levy spokeswoman Margie Feinberg.