CY FAIR ISD BUILDS SCHOOLS FOR LESS THAN KATY ISD:
The takeaway from this article is that our neighbor, Cy Fair ISD, has been able to build schools for $107 a square foot over the 2007-2013 period while Katy ISD clocks in at $130 a square foot. That's about 20% more! Maybe Cy Fair doesn't pad their bids by 30%. The two districts do use pretty much the same architects, with PBK being at the forefront. In that period of time 2.6 million square feet was built by Cy Fair, while Katy built 2.3 million square feet. Keep in mind that Katy has 67,763 students while Cy Fair has 104,231 students or about 35% more students! Is Cy Fair be able to better manage their building program and their growth? It would be interesting to know how many high schools Cy Fair built in that period compared to Katy.
Houston area school districts boast low construction costs
.By Jennifer Radcliffe
The Houston Chronicle
June 30, 2014 | Updated: June 30, 2014 9:08pm
The Houston area boasts the lowest school construction costs in Texas at just $135 a square foot, nearly $20 lower than the state average, the Texas Comptroller's Office reported Monday.
The region includes three of the most prolific builders in the state - the Katy, Cypress Fairbanks and Fort Bend school districts, which have added a combined 6.7 million square feet of facilities since 2007.
The fast-growing Cy-Fair ISD, heavily touted in the report by Comptroller Susan Combs, led the way in thrift with construction costs of $107 a square foot. Channelview ISD has the same costs, but built just 414,100 square feet, compared to Cy-Fair's 2.6 million square feet.
Statewide, construction costs ranged from $76 per square foot in Laredo to $260 per square foot for an elementary school in Port Arthur. All costs were adjusted for inflation.
"If you want to do it efficiently and effectively, it's clear to me that you can, but it has to be driven by the top," Combs said Monday.
She was urged to look into school construction costs a few years ago by contractors in the San Antonio area, who were worried about the high costs of schools in that region. The report shows that schools there cost an average of $166 a square foot.
"How come Houston can do it and San Antonio can't?" Combs said. "They have really paid attention to putting the money where the kid is. The kid is not in herringbone brick patterns."
She said she was also surprised by how difficult it was to collect accurate, timely data from the school systems. She said she plans to urge the Texas Education Agency to collect construction cost data so taxpayers can easily access it.
School construction can account for up to 50 cents of the property tax rate per $100 of value. All told, Texas schools carry $64.8 billion worth of debt, or more than $13,000 per student in districts with debt.
$1.2 billion in bonds
Cy-Fair voters in May approved another $1.2 billion in bonds to help the district keep up with growth, The district plans to stretch the dollars by constructing multiple campuses on the same land. The 11th high school, for example, will be built alongside an elementary and middle school, allowing the building to share parking and a cooling plant.
Cy-Fair officials attribute their low costs to using standard designs, identical materials and a handful of contractors, when possible.
The $9.4 million McFee Elementary School cost just $94 a square foot in adjusted dollars to open in August 2007. The $54 million Cypress Ranch High School cost about $102-a-square foot, after inflation adjustments, and came in $162,000 under budget in 2008, according to the state report.
Net profit margins up
The time studied included a recession, which lowered all construction costs, noted Roy Sprague, Cy-Fair assistant superintendent of facilities.
"Most contractors were entering construction contracts at cost just to be able to keep their staff employed and their doors open," he said. "However, now that the economy is very prosperous again, these contractors and subcontractors have increased their net profit margins and have increased their labor rates which has resulted in a significant increase in the construction costs in the Houston area."
$123 a square foot
With so much construction underway, labor and material shortages are driving up prices, he said.
Cy-Fair's newest elementary school cost $123 a square foot. The next one could reach $160.
"Our goal is always to keep our initial constructions costs low without the sacrifice of quality, while providing low energy and maintenance costs, which becomes an overall long-term savings to our taxpayers," Sprague said.
Cost comparisons
Area school districts' cost per square foot and total square footage from 2007-13
Aldine: $121; 1.1 million
Alief: $102; 121,423
Channelview: $107; 414,100
Cy-Fair: $107; 2.6 million
Fort Bend: $150; 1.8 million
Galena Park: $135; 105,000
Goose Creek: $119; 856,598
Houston: $136; 1.2 million
Humble: $141; 1.2 million
Katy: $130; 2.3 million
Klein: $129; 1 million
La Porte: $161; 110,000
Pasadena $117; 1.1 million
Pearland: $131; 815,478
Spring: $130; 740,952
Spring Branch: $139; 522,074
Tomball: $142; 698,318
Texas: $154
Source: Texas Comptroller's Office