State
halts scouting for school sites
Many projects in limbo as $181M
will shift to ongoing construction
Saturday, May 21, 2005 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL •
Star-Ledger Staff
Faced with dwindling funds, New Jersey's
Schools Construction Corp. has stopped scouting sites for
proposed new schools, opting to use the $181 million
earmarked for that task for construction of about 70
projects already in the works.
"If we don't have the money to buy the
property and build the schools, let's not spend the money
looking at sites," said Jack Spencer, chief executive
officer of the SCC.
The decision clouds the prospects for
scores of new school projects that had been proposed but not
yet launched in the 31 communities included in a state
Supreme Court school construction order.
In Newark, for instance, only nine of a
projected 40 new schools would continue to advance under the
schedule Spencer outlined yesterday.
"This suspension is going to have very
severe consequences," said Newark's architect, Corwin Frost.
"It's very disappointing, and getting more
disappointing."
The SCC informed 24 engineering firms
this week that it is suspending their three-year site
investigation contracts effective yesterday, more than a
year early.
The decision is the first tangible result
of Spencer's projection that the school projects already on
the drawing board will consume the entire $6 billion the
state authorized in 2000 for a court-ordered overhaul of
decrepit schools in 31 needy communities.
It marks the third set of pricey
professional consulting contracts the corporation has
canceled since a scathing report from state Inspector
General Mary Jane Cooper criticized the school program for
inadequate spending controls and high overhead
costs.
Last week, the corporation announced
plans to scale back $460 million in consulting contracts
with 13 engineering companies that were hired as project
management firms to oversee school work for the
corporation.
Also last week, the corporation canceled
a $25 million contract for temporary employees that Cooper
had questioned.
Cooper's investigation was launched after
a Star-Ledger analysis that found the six schools built by
the SCC since 2002 cost on average 45 percent more than the
19 mostly suburban schools built without SCC management
during the same period of time.
Lawmakers already are on notice that
Spencer's agency will be seeking billions of dollars more
for the school construction program.
A bill sponsored by Sen. Ron Rice
(D-Essex) would allocate another $2 billion for the
communities covered by the court order, and $833 million
more for suburban communities. Lawmakers have already passed
a bill to set up a school construction review committee,
which is designed to assess the effectiveness of the SCC's
work and to suggest ways to bankroll more
construction.
The latest batch of contracts to be
suspended were awarded in July 2003. Each of the 24
companies hired under the site evaluation contracts was
authorized to handle up to $8 million of work to assess
proposed sites for their feasibility as school
locations.
Of the $192 million authorized for the
work so far, the firms have collected a total of $11.3
million, SCC records show.
In a memo last week the firms were told
to wrap up their work and submit bills for payment by the
close of business yesterday. The memo cancels any site
investigation work on projects that are not scheduled to be
under construction by Dec. 10.
"You have or will be notified if any of
your projects are designated to continue," the memo says.
"Unless otherwise directed, feasibility activities must stop
as of the close of business Friday."
State officials could not immediately
identify which school site projects will continue to move
forward.
Spencer said the corporation will
continue working on property acquisition, design and
construction of about 70 school projects that are already in
the works.
That's less than half the total number of
new schools the communities directed the state to build
under terms of the 1998 Abbott v. Burke state Supreme Court
order, which demanded the state replace hundreds of
"crumbling and obsolescent" schools.
Spencer had hoped to launch 82 new school
projects this calendar year, with a total projected cost of
$1.2 billion. But the award of new construction work has
been suspended since March, when Cooper asked for a freeze
in light of her investigation's findings that the SCC was
fraught with waste.
The corporation is scheduled to meet
Wednesday to consider adoption of a series of reforms to
address several of the concerns Cooper raised in her April
report on the school program.
Dunstan McNichol covers state government issues. He may
be reached at dmcnichol@starledger.com or (609) 989-0341.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
|