Room for Learning

This from Business Lexington:

Public school renovations
keeping many
construction companies in the black

With its bonding capacity increased sixfold by last year's approval of a property tax increase dedicated to facility improvements, Fayette County School District is preparing to launch an aggressive renovation schedule early next year, and for some local building companies and their subcontractors, the timing couldn't be better.

Between February and April, the school district will collect bids on five major renovation projects at three elementary schools and two middle schools, with a preliminary estimated cost of $55 million, thanks to the voters' 2007 approval of the district's request to increase local property taxes by roughly 5.5 cents per $100 of assessed value.

The school board's call for the tax increase garnered supported at that time from a consortium of local business leaders and groups, including the Home Builders Association of Lexington, the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors and Commerce Lexington's Board of Directors.The increase, known at the time as the nickel tax, is expected to generate an additional $167.6 million in bonding capacity for the school district this year to address an extensive list of bricks-and-mortar needs.

Overall, the district expects to spend $317.2 million over the next 10 years on its building and renovation program, which has historically contracted primarily with locally based architects, consulting engineers and general contractors.

The first five renovation projects on the school district's to-do list will take place concurrently at Arlington Elementary, Cassidy Elementary, Russell Cave Elementary, Leestown Middle, and Bryan Station Middle School, said Bill Wallace, AIA, director of facility design and construction for Fayette County Public Schools, but district facility plan proposals call for renovations to be launched at 22 schools in the district over the next six years."It's quite a bit of work, so we're really going to be testing what our local workforce has to offer," Wallace said...