The plan of Portland Public Schools to issue up to 1.15 billion US dollars for the modernization of three aging high schools is geared towards similar projects in the region, even if inflation is taken into account, an independent analysis of the distribution plans of the district.
The long-awaited report by the Cornerstone Management Group, based in Wilsonville, offered a detailed insight into the expenditure projections for pending work on the Cleveland High School in Southeast Portland, the Wells High School in Southwest Portland and the Jefferson High School in North Portland as well as Budget of Budget The Lincoln High School in the city center of Portland, which was opened in 2022, and which in the progress Beaverton High School of the Beaverton School District.
In his report, John Abel, a partner of Cornerstone, wrote that his goal was to help Portland public schools to identify areas for possible cost savings.
According to the report published late Friday, the objects that increase the planned construction studio of the district include:
- The use of mass wood, a low -carbon alternative to concrete and steel.
- Complicated location logistics from the building in the middle of a city, a specific problem in Cleveland, which has by far the smallest footprint of one of the schools in question for the main building of the secondary school.
- The sustainability and design goals of the district, which include the use of gas and buildings for environmentally friendly sustainable LEED gold standards for mechanical, electrical and sanitary systems.
- Including a health center on campus and a teenager parent center in all proposed projects.
- The goals of the diversity of the association of the district for subcontractors.
Another large cost driver is the size, according to the Cornerstone report. Beaverton and Lincoln High Schools are both around 300,000 square meters, while the plans for Cleveland, Jefferson and Wells are all around 320,000 square foot. This automatically adds about 24 million US dollars to the end result of each project.
“We recommend that PPS check their standards that have led to increasing the size of the new building,” wrote Abel. “This is a great increase in costs, so every reduction in space would lead to overall savings of the project.”
Another potential cost driver for Portland according to the report: the use of a model of the district administrator of the district.
This means that a monitoring construction company is brought on board during the design phase, long before shovels are on the ground, and subsequent phases questioned about the competition requirement that is known to anyone who has requested estimates for a home repair.
In its current projects, Portland Public Schools works with three of the city's largest contractors: Skanska for Cleveland, Andersen Construction for Jefferson and Hoffman Construction for Wells.
The Cornerstones report stated that the scope of work of “preliminary reduction” in each of the proposed Portland projects goes beyond what was included in Beaverton. “
The report also shows that “general conditions” for contractors for the three Portland projects are well above the level in Beaverton. “General conditions” are a view of the administration, administration and coordination.
For Beaverton, these costs are around 13.7 million US dollars. For Cleveland, it is estimated at 42.5 million US dollars. For Jefferson it is estimated at $ 56.4 million and for Wells, it is estimated at 44 million US dollars. The Portland Public Schools paid 25 million US dollars for the general contractor's conditions, when Lincoln built Lincoln in 2022, according to the report.
“We recommend that the PPS check the general conditions for every current cost estimate and work with the … contractors to find options and options to reduce these costs,” wrote Abel in the report. “This could possibly contain a change in the PPS requirements listed in … Contracts and the way projects are managed, including project management software and the systems from which PPS must use their teams.”
The Cornerstone report states that the latest projects in the region indicate that the hardware store is soft, which leads to an increased competition and the number of offers.
“The contractor endeavors to find work and have less work on their books,” wrote Abel. “PPS should continue to work with the … contractors to monitor and adapt the estimated escalation factors and dollar amounts in their estimates.”
Julia Brim-Edwards, who examined the costs for the high school projects, said it was clear that Cornerstone's report shows that “strict evaluation should be reduced at all costs and the total costs”.
It is not clear how much costs could decrease, she said, but some “non -academic educational specifications” may have to be checked.
“Now it's time to act,” said Brim-Edwards. “The redesign consulting groups should be restarted immediately so that the school communities understand compromises and prioritize essential elements of the modernization.”
The superintendent of Portland Public Schools, Kimberlee Armstrong, who has been in her role for about six months, said that she was impressed how expensive the schools in the district are compared to others.
“It seems as if our costs of step one of the modernization processes are significantly higher,” said Armstrong. “It raises questions about whether there are opportunities to optimize or adapt our approach earlier in the process in order to reduce the costs and at the same time achieve our goals for quality and functionality.”
Armstrong has made it clear that she would like to drop the high school's modernization costs to release money for improvements in the aging elementary and middle schools campus of the district.
-Julia Silverman covers the K-12 training for the Oregonian/Oregonlive. Use e -mail at jsilverman@oregonian.com.