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Show School building cost increased Since 1951, $175,295,461 has been spent for new school buildings. By 1968 this will likely climb to $275,000,000. Furthermore, of $148 million spent for elementary and secondary sec-ondary schools last year, $58 million went for teacher salaries salar-ies and $33 million was spent for capital outlay. These are Utah's two largest school cost items. Expenditures which are 22 of the total school budget call for close investigation. There is a great deal of difficulty dif-ficulty involved in comparing school building costs it is not easy to determine which costs are comparable nor to find a valid cost comparison yardstick however there is value the cost per pupil, the cost per classroom and the cost per square foot. School maintenance costs should also be considered. Will Utah need more or fewer few-er new school rooms? In 1954 we had approximately 6,576 classrooms. By 1964 they had grown to 9,673. Governor Clyde's School Study Committee Commit-tee Report projects a need for 12,468 by 1968 an increase of 2,795 over 1964. On an average, av-erage, 310 classrooms were added ad-ded every year since 1954 and an additional 700 will be needed need-ed every year to 1968. The figures clearly show that school construction costs will continue to spiral and that never before have economics in classroom construction been more urgent. Do all school districts spend their building tax dollars as efficiently as their neighbors? Or put another way will one tax dollar buy as much brick and mortar in Salt Lake District as in the Granite School District? We shall see. It is a well known fact that building costs in one district are more than in another. We submit herewith a comparison of building costs for the years 1962-65. For the study we have compared costs per classroom as well as costs per square foot. For elementary schools the square foot cost is $14.02 and cost per classroom is $30,897. For junior high schools it is $13.86 and $45,849, and $15.31 and $50,370 for high schools. The average farm in Canada is about 300 acres in size; in the United States, 250. |