One has to wonder how District 150 is estimating the cost to build a new school.

Clare Jellick reported Tuesday on the school board’s plan to build a new school to replace Harrison. Their original plans were too big and too expensive, so now they’ve reduced the square footage and the estimated costs:

Construction costs came in over budget last year when the original design, at 120,000 square feet, was estimated to cost as much as $21.6 million. The building was first estimated to cost $15 million.

The proposed space would be about 18,000 square feet smaller than the original design and cost about $19.7 million.

There are three estimates in those two paragraphs, plus there’s one more estimate that wasn’t listed. That estimate is the one that STS Consultants made that justified replacing the building instead of renovating it in the first place.

STS Consultants was hired to conduct the district’s 10-year “Health Life Safety” report on several schools including Harrison and Glen Oak. This report has direct bearing on how much money the school can obtain through Health Life Safety bonds for maintenance or replacement of school buildings. STS told the Illinois State Board of Education in December 2006 — just five months ago — that the cost to replace the current 102,396-square-foot facility would be only $11,812,158, about $165,000 less than it would cost to renovate the building to bring it up to code.

Just so we can compare apples to apples, here’s how all these estimates break down in cost per square foot:

Estimate	Total Cost	Total ft.²	Cost per ft.²
8/05 Estimate	$15,000,000	120,000 SF	$125.00/SF
8/06 Estimate	$21,600,000	120,000 SF	$180.00/SF
12/06 Estimate (STS)	$11,812,158	102,396 SF	$115.36/SF
5/07 Estimate	$19,700,000	102,000 SF	$193.14/SF

Anyone remember that song from Sesame Street that goes, “One of these things is not like the other”? That STS Consultants estimate really sticks out, doesn’t it? Yet that was the estimate that was used to “prove” that it would cost less to replace the school building than to renovate it.

STS Consultants used the RS Means Building Construction Cost Data (2006 Edition) to do their estimate. RS Means provides a complicated formula that takes into account the fact that square footage costs vary depending on the size of the structure and the city in which it’s built. However, it’s pretty clear to me that RS Means’ estimates are considerably lower than reality. Notice the dates in the above table — even up to a year and a half before STS’s estimate was done, the district was figuring it would cost more than $115 per square foot to build a new school.

The district didn’t question STS Consultants’ estimate even though it was obviously too low and unrealistic. Why? Could it be because the school board and administration want to replace the buildings, and STS’s numbers provided the justification they wanted?

This calls into question something else: the cost to replace Glen Oak School. STS Consultants’ study on that school concluded the cost to renovate the building ($8.36 million) would be more than the cost to replace it ($7.95 million). But their cost of replacement was based on $119.08 per square foot for the 66,791-square-foot building. Now that we know the real cost is closer to $190+ per square foot, the decision to replace the building needs to be reconsidered.

The school board fawned all over District 150 Superintendent Ken Hinton at Monday’s board meeting. Take a listen:

[audio:https://peoriachronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/Audio/Hinton050707.mp3]

Or, if you can’t quite stomach listening, here’s the agenda item as it appeared in the school board’s packet:

Proposed Action by the Board of Education:

That the Board of Education express its intent to ask Superintendent Hinton to continue on as Superintendent of the School District beyond the end of his current employment contract, which terminates on June 30, 2008, and grant him an additional new two (2) year employment contract at that time.

Background Information:

Superintendent Hinton’s current three (3) year employment contract will end on June 30, 2008. After Superintendent Hinton came out of retirement and became Deputy School Superintendent, he was asked to complete his study to obtain his Illinois Superintendent Certification and become Superintendent of the School District for a period of three (3) years. The Board of Education believes that the Superintendent has made great progress toward the goal of improved student achievement in the District and is bringing the District back to a sound financial footing. He is regaining the confidence of the Community and staff in our School District. The Board is asking Ken Hinton to continue on as Superintendent for an additional two (2) years beyond the end of his current contract and is publicly stating its intent to offer him a new contract at that time.

If the school board believes Hinton has made “great progress toward the goal of improved student achievement,” then they have pretty low expectations. While modest gains were made in Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores overall (although the percentage of students who “exceed expectations” actually went down), the performance of students on the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) fell this year.

As for financial stability, the deficit has gone down over the past couple of years, largely due to highly-paid teachers who retired, more state funding, and increases in taxes. I don’t think Hinton had very much to do with it, unless someone can show me otherwise. On the contrary, all I’ve seen Hinton do is prematurely spend $877,500 for properties on the basis of a non-binding letter of intent. He let the residents strip the homes before they left, leaving them unlivable and unsaleable, making these over-market-value purchases a total loss. Now the district is having to raze the houses at an additional expense. Administrative staffing levels have increased under Hinton, and they’ve just recently gotten big raises while at the same time teachers were taking heavy concessions. If this is what the board means by getting the district on “sound financial footing,” then again, I’d say the board has very low expectations of their superintendent.

The most laughable statement of all, however, is that Hinton is “regaining the confidence of the Community and staff….” Ironically, the same night that this statement was made, here was the scene outside of the administration building:

A real vote of confidence, wouldn’t you say? In reality, Hinton’s relationship with the staff and teachers is strained due to his questionable budgetary decisions. His relationship with the city is strained at best, thanks again to his botched handling of the Glen Oak Park/School issue. People are still moving out of Peoria. The district is still failing to meet AYP and is in danger of being taken over by the state. People are showing their confidence with their home sales.

But the school board is confident, and they voted unanimously to extend Hinton’s contract another two years, even though his contract doesn’t end until 2008 and there’s another round of tests before the contract comes up for renewal. What with the school board do if test results go down, or if the financial situation worsens? I’m beginning to see a trend here of premature action….

When you look at our overall budget, and look at what we spend money for, I would like to think that we spend money for effective programs and effective opportunities that increase the academic performance, the social awareness, and the emotional stability of our students.

—Superintendent Ken Hinton, commenting at the May 7 school board meeting on why the district should break the bank to keep the Edison Schools contract. I wonder how paying $877,500 for houses the district can’t use, then razing them, increases academic performance, social awareness, or emotional stability of District 150 students.

Wilbur and Dorothy Rose’s house is gone. The home from which they watched fireworks, the home in which they planned to live the rest of their lives, has been demolished by Peoria Public School District 150.

Demolished for nothing. The school district can’t use the land for anything.

The picture above shows the empty lot at 2126 N. Prospect where the Roses’ house used to stand. The district purchased the property for $98,000, almost $38,000 more than its fair-market value. They bought it prematurely, thinking they were going to be able to enter into a land-sharing agreement with the Park District and erect a new school on this property and the surrounding parcels they had started to assemble.

Once that plan fell through, they decided not to sell the properties or try to recoup lost money. Instead, they’ve begun razing the houses instead. So instead of the picture above, I could have just as easily put up a picture of a pile of taxpayer money and the school board lighting it on fire.

Is this how Peorians want their tax money to be spent? Is the school board simply taking revenge on east bluff neighbors for opposing their plans for a school here, and using taxpayer dollars to do it? Or is the school board laying siege to the neighborhood here, destabilizing it to the point that the remaining neighbors will just give in (or leave)? Will no one hold the school board accountable for the wanton destruction of assets that could be better used for educational purposes?

The school board spent $877,500 total to purchase eight properties in this neighborhood — properties they can’t use — properties they should resell. How long will we let this fiscal irresponsibility continue?