One hundred and sixteen million dollar high school opens next month (middle school, wages)

[nana053]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Secondary = middle school? If so, that price seems in the ballpark, even for that many students.

secondary = high school, not middle school

[nana053]

Originally Posted by hsw

Most of world's most valuable and profitable cos. have rather cheap suburban offices w/lots of millionaire and billionaire employees who work far harder/smarter than 99+% of other workers....think Apple, Google, Oracle, Microsoft, etc

Costly skyscrapers/campuses suggest cos. w/crappy stock prices and profitability....and unproductive, entitled workers and execs (and dumb shareholders whose money is being squandered)

In online era, fancy bricks and mortar campuses, whether for K-12 or college, public or pvt, simply represent corrupt, Luddite fleecing of taxpayer who subsidizes any of this crap (through taxes, tax subsidies for pvt schools and ultimately for taxpayer bailouts when the college credit bubble/scam pops, much like housing)

In era of tech/Net/kindle/khanacademy, etc, if anything, cost of any education should be plummeting along with cost of computing power....dramatic deflation not inflation

While I agree that tech *can* mean less costly buildings, have you actually seen microsoft's campus?

Microsoft News Center

Or google's main campus

google corporate campus - Google Search

Or Oracle's
google corporate campus - Google Search

There are now schools using khan academy which I think is a great idea.

LASD and Khan Academy Pilot

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/te...pagewanted=all

[SuperSparkle928]

Originally Posted by maf763

The nice thing is that school expenditures like this are locally controlled. The community voted in the school board that elected to build it.

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Umm... not really....
Look at the high school built in 2003 in Lawrence, MA. It cost $110M, for 3000 students. Take a WILD guess as to how much the residents of Lawrence paid for the school. (I will give you a hint... it is neither a positive or negative number). Yes, the community voted for it, but they didn't pay for it.
Welcome to the Socialist State of Massachusetts. I hope the residents of Lawrence thank all the taxpayers from the other cities/towns for paying for it.

(Reason number 2,043 why I moved out of MA).

[MassVt]

For those of you who might not know, Wellesley, MA is also a very old and very wealthy community, BTW..

[Lije Baley]

I'm no expert on building costs, so now it looks like this school isn't that expensive, especially in comparison to that school in L.A.

I still don't like the size, though I assume that is a cost-cutting measure i.e. instead of 2-3 high schools for a certain area, there's one huge one. I've subbed in a similar school here in Houston and the amount of time spent walking class to class was nuts. The MA school does look attractive though, especially all the sunlit classrooms, all of which I think helps create a more positive atmosphere for the kids inside: I've spent time in older schools where they look like they were based on plans drawn up for prisons built in the early 1900s - talk about oppressive!

[nicet4]

Originally Posted by Lije Baley

Photo tour of $116M Wellesley High School

Am I that out of touch or is the price tag for this school seem really outrageous? Or is it a very large school (I can't find a square footage figure)? If it is large, don't like that much either: personally I think large schools create an oppressive, impersonal and factory-like atmosphere for the kids, not to mention the fact that additional (and needless) stress will be created because those students will probably literally have to run to class if this is another district that imposes some ridiculously short inter-class time period so popular these days.

Here is one I ran across this morning:

Project Name Atlanta Public Schools - North Atlanta High School
Description: Site work and new construction of an educational facility in Atlanta. Design development plans call for the construction of a near 400,000-square-foot high school to include classrooms, administrative offices and gymnasium. A bid date for subcont....

snip

Building Use Educational
Start Date 06/19/2012
Project Value $45,000,000.00

Looks like about $112.50/sq ft.

I don't bid schools it's a lot of work and maybe 5 years ago you could turn a profit (I did) you can't today.

Every time you see a curved wall, an arch or vaulted ceiling the construction cost is going to go up and in some cases way up.

[Green Irish Eyes]

It's 280,000 square feet, so $414/SF, and built to house 1,600 students. FWIW: this article says the building came in under budget.

As of 2009, Wellesley's median income was $133,359 and median house price was $839,850.

I'm thinkin' they can afford the school.

[alphamale]

Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28

First impressions can shock and awe a lot of people into thinking $116M = QUALITY education.

My first impression = a waste of taxpayer dollars.

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by Lije Baley

I'm no expert on building costs, so now it looks like this school isn't that expensive, especially in comparison to that school in L.A.

The school in L.A., Robert F. Kennedy High, cost $578 million. A large chunk of that was because it sat on one of the most prime and historic pieces of real estate in the city. I'm assuming the owners of the land made a bundle of cash.

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

That is indeed very expensive for so few students unless the actual building is anticipated to hold more.

I did some looking in Virginia - and noticed Fairfax county is spending $85M right now to renovate an existing high high school. Most of Fairfax county's high schools are 3,000 range (I think).

None of this is anywhere near as crazy as over half a billion for that school in Los Angeles. The voters that approved that are nuts.

The secondary school I referenced earlier is where I live in Fairfax County. The high school renovation for $85M is also a school for science and technology (if we are talking about the same one, Thomas Jefferson) which probably bumps up the cost I would think.