It's getting a lot more expensive to fix Broward County, Fla.'s decaying schools.
Huge cost overruns in the district's renovation program, funded mostly with an $800 million bond referendum approved by voters in 2014, are being blamed on delays, inflation and a high demand for construction workers.
It has led to questions about whether there will be enough money for all 230 schools in the program.
On Tuesday, the School Board will be asked to approve giant cost increases for major roofing and air conditioning work at two of the county's oldest and most decaying schools. The price tag for Stranahan High in Fort Lauderdale has climbed 82 percent, from $16.8 million to $30.5 million. The costs at Northeast High in Oakland Park has more than doubled, from $14.5 million to $31.4 million.
They're the latest in a string of recent price increases.
- At Blanche Ely High in Pompano Beach, the costs to replace air conditioning, make the gymnasium accessible to the disabled and make other major building upgrades have increased from $14.8 million to $22.1 million, a nearly 50 percent increase.
- The cost of replacing 61 portable classrooms at Cypress Bay High in Weston with a permanent building has doubled, from $9.3 million to $19.2 million.
- Prices increased at four schools where construction recently started. Costs went up by $945,000 at Indian River Middle in Davie, an 18 percent increase; $626,000 at Manatee Bay Elementary in Weston (33 percent); $517,000 at Coconut Creek Elementary (11 percent); and $452,897 at Cypress Elementary in Pompano Beach (12 percent).
School Board members predict more large projects will come in well over budget, including renovation work at Nova High School in Davie and classroom additions at Charles Flanagan High in Pembroke Pines and Falcon Cove Middle in Weston.
District officials say they have plenty of money in reserves and are committed to completing all projects by 2021. Board member Laurie Rich Levinson was less confident after seeing the costs so far.
"If this is the beginning, it's very clear we're going to need to look at putting more money into our reserves," she said.
Some worry there won't be enough money for projects scheduled for the last years of the bond program.
This could include 11 schools still in the earliest stages of planning: Cooper City Elementary, Cresthaven Elementary in Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach Middle, Heron Heights Elementary in Parkland, Lyons Creek Middle in Coconut Creek, Monarch High in Coconut Creek, New Renaissance Middle in Miramar, the two Nova elementary schools in Davie, Silver Lakes Middle in North Lauderdale and Silver Palms Elementary in Pembroke Pines.
Nathalie Lynch Walsh, a Plantation parent who sits on the district's audit committee and facilities task force, said a major hurricane or recession could derail the program.
"Their entire plan hinges upon nothing going wrong economically for the school district," she said. "The reserves they're dipping into are the same resources they'll have to dip into if we have a hurricane or a major downturn."
Some members of the district's Bond Oversight Committee also have raised concerns about whether there will be enough money to complete the program. However, Florida TaxWatch, a Tallahassee-based government watchdog group assisting the committee, has yet to raise this as an issue in its quarterly reports.
"Sure there's a concern, but the district has assured the Bond Oversight Committee that the money will be available from whatever source to pay for these projects," said Bob Nave, vice president of research for TaxWatch.
Broward school officials said they've known for a couple of years that many of these project costs would increase, and have budgeted a reserve of about $225 million. That assumes about a 25 percent increase in costs overall. Officials said they knew that some of the larger projects, such as Blanche Ely and Stranahan, would come in above that.
"These are some the most complex projects. We anticipated they'd come in over, which is why we have a reserve of such a large magnitude," Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. "If the costs were significantly more than what we've seen, we'd have concerns, but right now we don't."
