School
designs will be recycled to cut cost
With cash running out, state
agency also tightens the penalties for errors by
architects
Thursday, June 23, 2005 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL •
Star-Ledger Staff
Two years ago, architects for a new
school in Long Branch offered district officials a 50
percent discount to re-use the building's blueprints for a
nearly identical school they were about to construct in the
town.
But the Schools Construction Corp., the
state agency managing school construction in Long Branch and
30 other needy communities, turned down the offer and put
the new school project out to bid. The firm that offered the
discount, Tomaino & Tomaino, won the new bid for $1.5
million -- double its cut-rate offer.
Yesterday, spurred by a recent state
Inspector General's report that assailed it for waste and
mismanagement, directors of the Schools Construction Corp.
voted to re-use school designs whenever possible. Officials
said the new policy should cut design costs in
half.
The board also agreed to charge
architects for design mistakes that end up increasing the
cost of school projects by at least 2 percent. In her
report, Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper said $22.9
million of change orders had been attributed to errors and
omissions, and recommended adopting a policy to seek
reimbursement of those costs.
The policy shifts come after the SCC has
already spent $465 million on architecture fees.
"We would expect to save about 50 percent
of the design cost through the re-use of the design on
another site," said Jack Spencer, chief executive officer of
the SCC.
Vineland architect Bruce D. Turner,
president of American Institute of Architects New Jersey,
said the SCC changes appeared reasonable. "We understand we
have to be sensitive to the issues that are important to
taxpayers," he said.
The new policies are the latest in a
series of sweeping reforms developed since February, when a
Star-Ledger analysis showed the six schools built by the SCC
since 2002 cost, on average, 45 percent more than 19 schools
built without SCC involvement at the same time. The analysis
found that the SCC paid it architects fees that are almost
double the industry standard.
The new policies also come as the
corporation is running out of funds. At yesterday's monthly
meeting, SCC officials said they have $1.2 billion left for
school construction in the 31 needy communities. Those
communities, meanwhile, have received state Department of
Education approval for about 270 new school projects -- at
least six times the number the remaining SCC funds will
cover.
Al Koeppe, who was named chairman of the
corporation in April in response to the Inspector General's
report, said a three-member panel is evaluating which of the
270 projects should be built with the remaining funds. That
panel will forward its recommendations to the full board for
consideration next month, he said.
He said the schools will be selected
based on how vital they are to the educational needs of the
children in the communities, how far along in design and
development they are and whether the corporation has
previously made commitments to local officials regarding the
projects under consideration. Corporation officials declined
to provide a list of the schools that are under
consideration.
"These are hard decisions," said Koeppe.
"We're going to manage the remaining resources in a way that
will provide the maximum benefit to the
children."
Yesterday's board meeting was crowded
with representatives from Newark, Camden, Gloucester,
Vineland and Trenton, who lobbied for projects that are
slated to be built in their communities.
Wanda Miranda, a resident of Camden's
Cramer Hill neighborhood, implored the board to continue
funding for a replacement to the 99-year-old Washington
Elementary School, which she said has been unchanged since
she attended it 37 years ago.
"They have no cafeteria, they have no
playground," said Miranda. "Thirty-seven years is a long
time without a change."
The schools corporation was set up three
years ago to manage a court-ordered overhaul of more than
400 school buildings in 31 of the state's neediest
communities. Lawmakers who established the school
construction program authorized $6 billion in bonds to
bankroll the court-mandated program and another $2.5 billion
to pay for portions of school building costs in the rest of
the state.
Today, the $2.5 billion fund is
essentially tapped out, and all but $1.6 billion of the $6
billion fund has been committed to school jobs already under
way.
Of the remaining $1.6 billion, about $400
million is needed to pay for property and equipment, leaving
$1.2 billion for new school construction. Since the typical
SCC school costs about $30 million, that would be enough to
build only 40 new schools.
Lawmakers already are considering
legislation that would add another $2 billion to the
court-mandated construction program, and one lawmaker last
week suggested it might cost another $25 billion to fully
comply with the court's school building order.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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