School Construction Project List for 2012

The latest priority list of local school construction projects and state grant reimbursements has been submitted for legislative approval during the 2012 session. It consists of 20 school projects costing a total of $546 million. Aggregate state grants for the projects are estimated to be $349 million, for an overall reimbursement rate of 64%.

Nine of the projects are additions to, or extensions of, existing schools and six are equipment purchases for vocational-agriculture centers. Only one is a brand new school, a new Guilford high school with an estimated cost of $92.2 million. Nine projects are in priority districts, three each in Hartford and Waterbury, two in Meriden, and one in Danbury.

School construction activity in Connecticut has fallen dramatically in the past decade. The 2012 list is less than one-fifth as long as the 2002 list and only one-tenth of the 2000 list. The 2002 priority list had 106 projects costing an estimated $1.63 billion, with projected state reimbursements totaling $1.03 billion.

The 2012 submission is a modest rebound from the last decade’s two school construction low points. The 2009 list was the decade’s shortest, with only 18 projects. The 2004 list was by far the cheapest, totaling an estimated $235.3 million in project costs and $177.6 million in state reimbursements.