Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Schools

Pinellas school construction costs excessive, report finds

By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published June 27, 2007

A four-month review of five school projects found a "deficient" planning process that often did not include enough early input and vastly underestimated costs.

The result: mid-project adjustments or "change orders" so numerous they exceeded the national average and increased the risk of unnecessary expenses.

The $35, 000 review, conducted by the international consulting firm Faithful + Gould, also concluded that Pinellas' costs for constructing and remodeling schools "exceeded state averages." The company urged Pinellas officials to meet with their counterparts in Hillsborough, who consistently build less expensive schools.

"It appears that there are some very helpful lessons to be learned that will enable the district to reduce the costs for future construction, " the report said, referring to Hillsborough.

The report singled out the new Gibbs High in St. Petersburg as a project with too many mid-course changes and a budget that became "a moving target." The most expensive school project in district history, it "was not managed as well as it could have been, " the report said.

The news comes amid a tough environment for the district, with the Florida Legislature ordering cuts in scrutinizing local government spending.

Like other large school districts, Pinellas spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on construction, renovation and land purchases In recent years, the number has hovered around $250-million. This year, it climbed to $388-million.

Superintendent Clayton Wilcox and the School Board authorized the review in February after Wilcox became concerned about cost increases for projects and a high number of change orders.

The review, he said, "pointed out what several of us have been thinking since I got to the district. Wilcox became superintendent in November 2004.

He said changes in the system already were under way. Perhaps the biggest one, he said, was the recent hiring of Leon Hobbs as associate superintendent for institutional services, overseeing school design and construction. Hobbs has started a reorganization that he says will make the district's construction process run "smarter and more efficiently."

Said Wilcox: "We haven't just been sitting on our hands waiting for this report to be finished ... Some of us knew intuitively what needed to be done."

He said it was premature to say that public money was wasted until the district dug more deeply into the reasons for the consultant's conclusions.

There could be some legitimate reasons why it might cost Pinellas more to build a school than Hillsborough, Wilcox said, citing material costs, the timing of projects and how buildings are situated on a site.

But he emphasized that he was perturbed at how the district went about building schools in recent years. Some examples: failing to aggressively seek out energy-efficient features, failing to adequately communicate across departments to get advice on how a finished building would perform and not having the "organizational discipline" to stick with a plan.

The penchant for changing and customizing often undermined the district's plans to cut costs by using prototype plans.

"To me, that kind of seems like construction management run amok, " Wilcox said.

Too often, he said, principals were allowed to suggest substantive changes to projects.

That's not a good use of their time, " he said. "That's not what they're trained for."

[Last modified June 27, 2007, 13:45:32]