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Revised Construction Cost Analysis Report


View the Construction Cost Analysis Report At its August 2006 meeting, the Citizens' Facilities Advisory Committee engaged DeJong, Inc., with Summit Consulting Services, LLC, to conduct a construction cost analysis for the Wake County Public School System and seven other districts from within North Carolina and outside North Carolina with comparable population growth and demographics.

The following school districts participated in the study:

  • Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Charlotte, N.C.
  • Clark County Public Schools, Las Vegas, Nev.
  • Fairfax County Public Schools, Falls Church, Va.
  • Guilford County Schools, Greensboro, N.C.
  • Gwinnett County Public Schools, Suwanee, Ga.
  • Orange County Public Schools, Orlando, Fla.
  • Wake County Public Schools, Raleigh, N.C.
  • Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, Winston-Salem, N.C.

The study reviewed new school construction costs. It contains information regarding school design, school construction methods and school construction costs. The study looked at facility model square footage and programmatic components, site development, building materials, and building systems. Data was gathered from comparison districts and "normalized" with time and location indexes to provide an "apples to apples" comparison.

The CFAC studied the initial report, released in January 2007, at its February and March meetings and indicated they wanted additional information included in the report, such as cost-per-student calculations and design capacities and square footages of the schools included in the cost-comparison portion of the study.

The construction-cost study shows the Wake County Public School System’s total project cost per square foot is higher than average for its elementary and high schools, and slightly lower than average for middle schools, when compared with similar school districts nationally.

Additionally, building-only costs were higher than average in Wake County for elementary, middle and high schools. Site-development costs per square foot were also higher than average for elementary ($30.10) and high schools ($29.24), but lower than average for middle schools ($14). The middle schools included in the study shared sites with elementary schools, which reduced their site development costs.

The updated study also shows higher construction costs per student; WCPSS had the highest cost per student for elementary, and the second highest cost per student for middle and high schools. However, design capacity is an area that is changing in Wake County, according to the study.  Capacity in WCPSS schools built between 2000 and 2006 was below average in the number of students per school for elementary, middle and high schools. However, based on the latest planning assumptions, WCPSS aims to build schools that have approximately the same capacity as the other districts in the study:

WCPSS Future Schools

  • Slightly below the average capacity for elementary schools (72 fewer students)
  • Slightly above the average capacity for middle schools (34 more students)
  • Slightly above the average capacity for high schools (7 more students)

The updated report, in PDF format, is available here: Cost Analysis Report (.pdf)

There is a PDF appendix to the report, totaling approximately 350 pages. Due to the size of the file, we are unable to post the appendix to the CFAC Web page at this time. Requests for the appendix, on CD, can be made by calling 919-856-5480.