RFK High School (in LA) Will Open As Nation's Costliest School - $578M!!!

[catlover79]

http://www.fox8.com/news/education/k...,3329901.story

$578 million dollar price tag is raising eyebrows.
KTLA News
12:31 AM EDT, August 24, 2010

LOS ANGELES -- Next month's opening of Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools with its $578 million dollar price tag will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school.

The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of " Taj Mahal" schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.

RFK's features include fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex's namesake, a manicured public park, a state-of-the-art swimming pool and preservation of pieces of the original hotel.

The RFK complex follows on the heels of two other LA schools among the nation's costliest -- the $377 million Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, which opened in 2008, and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009.

The pricey schools have come during a sensitive period for the nation's second-largest school system: Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation's lowest performing.

Los Angeles officials say the new schools were planned long before the economic pinch and are funded by $20 billion in voter-approved bonds that do not affect the educational budget.

Still, even LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines derided some of the extravagance, noting that donations should have been sought to fund the RFK project's talking benches commemorating the site's history.

Connie Rice, member of the district's School Bond Oversight Committee, noted the megaschools are only three of 131 that the district is building to alleviate overcrowding. RFK "is an amazing facility," she said. "Is it a lot of money? Yes. We didn't like it, but they got it done."

Construction costs at LA Unified are the second-highest in the nation -- something the district blames on skyrocketing material and land prices, rigorous seismic codes and unionized labor.

James Sohn, the district's chief facilities executive, said the megaschools were built when global raw material shortages caused costs to skyrocket to an average of $600 per square foot in 2006 and 2007 -- triple the price from 2002. Costs have since eased to $350 per square foot.