Arlington Public Schools’ internal auditor says he will continue work on comparing Arlington’s school-construction costs to those of other jurisdictions.
Auditor John Mickevice said ongoing work on construction costs would be one of four pillars of his 2019 audit plan. School Board members in October approved the work plan for the coming year.
Mickevice and an outside firm spent much of 2018 compiling and comparing data on construction costs for Arlington schools and those elsewhere in the country. The report, whose release was delayed for several months under somewhat mysterious circumstances, finally appeared on Oct. 1. (The full report is available at https://bit.ly/2P9C9fu.)
O’Connor Construction Management Inc., which produced the report under contract to the school system, suggested that Arlington’s school-construction costs are higher than they otherwise would be due to limited land availability, the county government’s cumbersome permitting requirements and an extensive community-engagement process.
The report had been slated to be discussed at an early-August joint meeting between…
