The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has approved another major school bond spending adjustment –m this time bringing the total project budget for the new Erwin Montessori School to just over $51 million.
At its first August meeting, the board approved a $39.5 million increase in the Erwin Montessori project ordinance to provide the money needed to complete construction of the new school at the former Archer Elementary School site.
That doesn’t mean the school suddenly became $39.5 million more expensive: Most of that money was always anticipated for the construction phase but hadn’t yet been appropriated to the project.
However, the final projected cost of the school did come in about $3.3 million higher than the amount originally programmed for the project, according to information provided to the commissioners.
County officials attributed the increase primarily to higher site preparation and other onsite costs.
The new Erwin Montessori will be a 71,361-square-foot magnet school designed to serve about 350 students.
The total project budget is now $51,031,620. The amended project ordinance shows that commissioners initially approved $8.4 million for the project in April 2021, added another $3.2 million in June 2025 and approved another $39.5 million on Aug. 6.
The Guilford County Board of Education approved a guaranteed maximum price of $36.9 million for construction on July 28.
One reason the overall project cost is considerably higher than the construction contract itself is the unusually high cost of preparing the site. According to information provided to the county commisssioners onsite costs for Erwin Montessori are about $10.7 million, compared with an average of about $7.8 million for Guilford County Schools elementary projects.
The actual building construction cost is listed at $408.23 per square foot. That is below both the GCS elementary school average of $418.55 per square foot and the statewide elementary school average of $421.62 per square foot.
The school is also smaller than the average elementary school used for comparison by both Guilford County Schools and other counties.
Erwin Montessori currently serves about 275 students. The replacement school is designed for 350 students and the 15-year enrollment projection is also 350 students.
By comparison, the average GCS elementary school serves 448 students and the comparable-county average cited in the commissioners’ agenda material is 465 students.
The $3.3 million needed above the previously programmed amount is being covered with money left over from other school bond projects rather than through additional borrowing beyond the already approved school bond program.
The commissioners reduced the Claxton Elementary project ordinance by $1.2 million. Claxton’s revised project budget is $49.1 million.
Another $2.1 million is being transferred from a completed project.
GCS officials told the county that the transferred money was available because the Claxton and Peeler-Hampton projects had opened and had unused construction funds.
The commissioners and school board have been moving the projects financed by the county’s two massive school bond referendums forward in stages rather than appropriating the entire anticipated cost of each project at the beginning.
Guilford County voters approved $300 million in school bonds in 2020 and another $1.7 billion in 2022, for a combined $2 billion school construction program.
For Erwin Montessori, the first $8.4 million appropriation covered design and pre-construction work. The additional $3.2 million approved last year covered early construction work including site preparation, utility infrastructure and the advance purchase of materials with long delivery times.
The latest appropriation gives GCS access to the rest of the funding needed to complete the school.
So, some projects finish over budget and some finish under budget? Any idea of what the running variance is to date across the portfolio of projects?
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Once again professor you prove to us, you’re not as smart as you think you are. There’s no such thing as a running variance in construction projects
I have worked in Finance most of my career. Here is the definition as used in project governance:
“In budgeting and project management, variance is the quantitative difference between an expected financial target and the actual result. It reveals whether a project or business is running over or under budget, providing a metric for tracking financial performance and control.”
Hope that helps. Cheers
Maybe you should try working in construction and then you’ll understand like most pencil pushers with a degree just how full of crap you are
What kind of construction do you do that people don’t care about budget variance?
My son works in construction management, and his bonus is largely based on his project budget variance and on time delivery. He works on large scale industrial projects. So may be different then your line of work.
i worked in construct & understand how full of crap i am which PROVES your point !
i was accused of ‘running variance’ while working construction & my variance was approved (once). research ‘the greensboro running trap’ not a p-trap
So we, the taxpayers, are spending almost $51 million just to add an additional 75 students? Does anybody on here see the stupidity in that? Really? They couldn’t just simply add One Wing on to the school to accommodate 75 students? But no, because it’s Guilford County who loves to blow taxpayers money, we are going to spend at the very least, $39 million for a ridiculous reason. Guilford County and the Guilford County school system has lost its mind. Every year they keep demanding more and more and more out of the taxpayers. And like dummies, we give it to them. Oh, it’s for the kids. No, no it’s not for the kids at all. It is for the leaders so they can portray themselves as something they’re not. They want to look big and mighty. Oh, we care. No, they don’t. Somebody has got to start using their brains in Guilford county. I’m certainly not going to vote for another school bond. I think it’s ridiculously stupid. We give them money to give raises to the teachers and they didn’t even use it for that and now they are asking for yet more money to give raises. And yet they are not teaching the kids anything anymore. They are indoctrinating them instead. No. It’s not right. When is there going to be a line drawn and when are we going to say enough is enough.
Large chunk of $ for 275 students. Was this the best way to spend 51 million?
Sounds like we may need a Data Center near by to pay for this monstrosity. 71,361 square feet of space for 350 students. Did I read that correctly.
Just a hundred years ago the schools were about to leave one room schools that held all grades that were taught with one teacher and go to State funded consolidated grades 1-11.
Today Are we going a little crazy with all this spending on schools that resemble a department store built out of bricks that come from hundreds of different colors and put together in variable designs that are in my opinion really ugly.
And it sounds like the students are learning very little. Are we spending the money on the wrong things?
hand that wad o cash to the actual teachers & let them design/build the infrastructure they need in their homes or nearby pooling $ with other nearby teachers to create program/structure ? uber/ride- share/ walk/ bike /gso bus/ PART bus the students to THESE, finally, PROFESSIONAL teachers ? voucher programs are a giant step in this direction
Don’t know who is estimating these projects but you need another engineer. This getting ridiculous.can you get one school built on budget? If they can’t meet budget do some cuts.