A friend emailed me that, according to Ron Peacock – school district’s Director of Facilities Planning, the $21 million price tag for the new A.K. Suter Elementary includes demolition of the current building, soft costs like design and permitting, fixtures, furniture, computers, etc. Construction itself is only $14.79 million, which is 102,000 square feet at estimated $145/sq.ft. The new school will have 600 student stations (219 more kids than are currently enrolled), and Peacock says the district anticipates expanding to 800.
Global Learning Academy had a construction cost of $16.58 million, but a total cost of $25 million, according to Peacock.
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The comparison of $16.58 million for 840 kids at GLA to $14.79 million for 600 at AKS still isn’t justifiable. The Suter construction still violates the school board policy for the capacity of new elementary schools. If you want to compare total costs, then you have to deduct the value of the closed schools, Hallmark, Yniestra and Bibbs, from the GLA total costs.
Let’s ignore whether the East Pensacola neighborhood can handle the 200%-plus increase in students and traffic. What really bothers me is where does the School District plan to get the nearly 500 new children to reach that 800-capacity at the new Suter? The enrollment for the entire district is shrinking every year. The Suter neighborhood isn’t producing more children. The only way to get the 500 new students is to close O.J. Semmes or Cordova Park, and I don’t think Cordova Park is on the cut list. What Peacock has unwittingly done, if the quote is accurate, is show that there are plans to shutdown another predominantly-black elementary school and bus them out of their neighborhoods to Suter.
The more I and others dig, the worse this gets.