A statewide workgroup gets inside funding and facility issues that lie beneath the surface.  At the first meeting of the workgroup on school construction funding and facility assessments, Bob Gorrell, the Director of the Public School Construction Program described the challenges of public understanding of school facilities issues. Relatively few residents will enter a school to see its condition, while almost all residents will experience deteriorating roads and unsafe highways. The Workgroup on the Assessment…

At the recent meeting of the Interagency Commission on School Construction, the Commission adopted a 3.4% increase to the statewide per-square-foot school building costs to $329 per square foot and changed their square footage allowances. The dollars per-square-foot figure annually adopted by the State's School Construction Commission represents to amount of funding that the State will contribute to school construction projects in the coming year. The State will still only contribute to a percentage of…