CHARLESTON, W.Va. — School superintendents from dozens of counties will appear before the state School Building Authority next week in hopes of convincing the SBA to fund their school construction projects in the latest round of “Needs” grants. A recent move by the SBA will allow some of those counties to seek more money for their projects.
The SBA last week approved a 20 percent increase in allowable square footage costs for new school construction.
“We’re seeing trends in square foot costs that affect all projects so we thought it was prudent for us to raise the maximum amount a county could request up to 20 percent higher,” SBA Director of Architectural Services Ben Ashley said.
A West Virginia labor leader said the increase is further proof the the legislature’s decision to repeal the state’s Prevailing Wage law in 2016 hasn’t worked.
“It’s true that costs have gone up but it’s kind of surprising that with the repeal of prevailing wage they are recognizing this,” West Virginia Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation Director Steve White recently told MetroNews. “You get what you pay for and the school systems are finding out when low-wage labor is used it’s causing all sorts of problems and costing them more.”
In 2016 the Republican-led legislature wiped out the long-held practice in West Virginia where the government surveys contractors to determine the minimum level of pay for a variety of classifications of jobs on state-funded projects, such as schools.
Supporters of prevailing wage argued prevailing wage provided a living wage for workers, while keeping out-of-state contractors from undercutting West Virginia construction companies and workers. Those favoring the repeal said the state overpaid millions of dollars for projects with the flawed survey system.
Ashley said the recent decision to increase allowable square footage costs is based on a lot of factors including what they’ve noticed to be an improving economy that’s impacting the number of contractors interested in projects.
“Overall, in general, the projects as a whole require a whole lot more to be built within the schools. The building code changed twice since 2013. There are a lot of different factors in addition to prevailing wage,” Ashley said.
White said his organization and others have said from the beginning of the prevailing wage fight that its repeal “wouldn’t save money would but cost money and that (square footage increase) validates that.”
“The savings that our legislative leaders promised, four schools for the price of three, five schools for the price of three at times, have not materialized, prices have gone up,” White said.
The impact the allowable square footage cost increase has on next week’s presentations by school superintendents and the ultimate awarding of grant funds by the SBA in December remains to be seen. Ashley said most projects in recent years have been renovations and not new schools so the impact may not be as great.
“Those won’t be effected by the maximum amount a county can quality for but again, the new projects that come in they are eligible to obtain more funding to keep up with the increase in costs that we’ve seen,” Ashley said.
White said organized labor would could continue to fight for the reinstatement of prevailing wage.
“What strikes us the most is a recognition, an admission that costs are going up even when wages have been slashed,” White said.
The square footage allowable costs haven’t been increased by the SBA since 2013. The exact amount the SBA will have to give out in “Needs” grants hasn’t been finalized.
The new school construction square footage costs are now $307 for elementary schools, $302 for middle schools and $300 for high schools.