Yes, the school is safe for occupancy, but left as is, the issue with the foundation will worsen. Repairs needed within the next 1-5 years would amount to an estimated $113 million. It is more economical to rebuild the school for $222.8 million than to continue to infuse money into repairing the 40-year-old building. (the amount is in line with current cost of building new high schools). 

Clements HS received funds under the 2018 bond, which were allocated to Fine Arts improvements (auditorium), Special Education interior renovations, drinking fountains, turf & athletics improvements, roofing (patching, overlay), elevators, building security, and water softeners. All projects approved under the 2018 bond were necessary and required to be implemented. Only in the past few years did engineers detect the foundation issues after shifting became more pronounced.   

Funds allocated under the 2018 bond for foundation repairs at the old field house were re-allocated to fund the design of a new field house, so that it could be replaced ahead of time. The new field house is currently under construction.  

The Clements HS rebuild was master planned using design and construction and engineering plans from HS12 (Crawford HS).  The Guaranteed Maximum Price includes escalation costs calculated utilizing data provided by AGC (Association of General Contractors).   

Our engineers, along with the Design and Construction department used market data to estimate the cost, as well as actual bids received in neighboring school districts as a check and balance.  The Clements HS construction budget includes design fees, permitting fees, asbestos abatement, demolition of the existing Clements building, technology, furniture and equipment, site improvements, and   a phased construction premium (the new school will be constructed on the athletic fields while the old school is occupied; after the new school is completed, Clements HS moves into it, while the old building is demolished and turned into new athletic fields).  

Those bids are in the table below.  The best way to compare construction costs are based on the construction cost per square foot. 

Details about the Clements rebuild estimate is below.   Total building costs from other area districts are at the bottom of the table. 

Lamar CISD’s Tomas HS is cheaper because it is 50,000 square feet smaller, and it is on a green field site.  Rebuilds on current sites are  more complicated and costlier.  Our estimate is significantly less than the Galveston Ball High School rebuild.

Please see the table below.  The priority 1 and 1.1 items are deficiencies that ideally should be addressed within 2 years.  Priority 2 items should be addressed within 3-5 years.   

Facility Condition Index (FCI) is used throughout the facility assessment industry as a general indication of building health.  It is calculated as a ratio between the Repair Cost vs. Replacement Value. Clements High School’s 2021 FCI of  59% is very high.   

The table below provides a summary 

Compare the rebuild vs renovate question to repairing an older car vs buying a new one. If you have an older car worth $5,000, but the transmission needs to be completely replaced and the repair costs $2,500, what would you do?  You could spend $2,500 to repair the car, but you would still have an older car with an aging engine, and a high probability of other expensive system failures occurring in a short amount of time – or you could trade in the older car for a new car with new parts and systems that function properly.   

We do not have that level of detail for other districts, but we do know how our fees compare to commercial industry standards.  The industry classifies the percentage of basic fees in building complexity groups. 

Standard construction industry practices allow for an increase in fees of 2% to 5% on renovation projects over new construction. It varies by project. FBISD has had the same Architectural/Engineering Design Fee Schedule since 2014. 

Our fees for renovation costs are also included for comparison purposes.  Renovation projects are more complicated since the architects start with other plans instead of starting new. Renovation projects require more effort than new projects since they involve investigation and discovery to understand existing conditions. As noted in an earlier question, renovations vary in complexity and could be cheaper than doing a rebuild.