Experts debate benefits of ‘Taj Mahal' high schools

By Michael Martinez, Chicago Tribune

LOS ANGELES _ Evelyn Vazquez couldn't believe the price of new Panorama High School: $117 million. With an outdoor pool, a shaded quadrangle and one-of-a-kind architecture, the new school persuaded her to transfer from an older public school two years ago.

"That's a lot of money, but what came out of it is beautiful," said Vazquez, 17, a senior who's now president of the student body, with her twin sister, Jackie, as vice president. "This is a second home to most students."

Throughout the country, including in Chicago, the modern high school is evolving into an expensive institution. In the past four years, at least 36 high schools in 10 states have been constructed or are being planned at the $100 million-plus price, according to federal and state officials. Los Angeles is home to most of them _ and even four middle schools at that cost, including one at $149 million.

While the nine-figure benchmark impresses some, the costs of real estate and construction mean that $100 million in one part of the country buys less than in another part. And absolute dollars may be less important than what these high-priced highs say about the commitment to education _ and to unique architecture and other amenities _ in the face of tight government budgets.

Some of these $100 million-plus schools are magnets serving an affluent or high-achieving demographic, while others are designed to function additionally as community centers and even sanctuaries from neighborhood violence. The 2,400-student Panorama High is the latter.

While Assistant Principal Sergio Guzman and other officials say the school has become a valued refuge for students, it wasn't always that pretty. The school was nicknamed "Bloodbath High" before it opened in autumn 2006 because it is in violent gang turf, scaring off some prospective students, according to faculty.

Now students protect their school, reporting any graffiti, and the school's tall gates protect them. A nearby strip mall is adopting the school's exterior colors of saffron and burgundy. Some faculty members say they may spend their entire careers there. And parents even have their own room for meetings.

Behind the stratospheric costs are rising prices for land, labor and materials _ as well as futuristic designs and features such as courtyards equaling two football fields in size, auditoriums big enough for community events and bamboo-trimmed nooks for a little Zen.

In Massachusetts, however, state officials are balking at the emergence of "Taj Mahal" high schools, including one nearing the $200 million mark. But that figure doesn't deter Los Angeles, which has two high schools under construction exceeding that amount and a third planned.

"There's no cookie cutters. Most are original architectural designs," said James O'Reilly, a director of construction for Los Angeles public schools, adding that the system's $20 billion construction program is the country's largest public works project. Many new schools have won design awards, he said.

Chicago is about to see its first nine-figure school. Up to $102.9 million has been authorized for a new structure to replace Westinghouse Career Academy High School to open in autumn 2009 for 1,200 students _ almost $86,000 a student.

The facility will hold a college prep and a magnet vocational education school under one roof, with the aim of improving test scores. In 2006, only 17 percent of Westinghouse's students met or exceeded state standards.

"I'm really shocked that the price has skyrocketed so high," said Jacqueline Leavy, former executive director of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, a nonprofit watchdog that closed a year ago.

Chicago Public Schools spokesman Michael Vaughn said last week that Westinghouse's final cost could be $95 million. Still, that's twice the 2005 estimate of $47 million; Vaughn said the added costs came from demolition, land acquisition and remediation.

Chicago's Public Building Commission, overseeing the new Westinghouse, is now planning one design for future high schools to keep expenses under $100 million, according to spokesman Kevin Smith.

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Whether all the amenities being offered nationally _ bigger classrooms, a planetarium, black-box theaters for small stage productions, classrooms with soaring ceilings and glass walls, a contemplation garden and facades at oblique angles _ translate into better achievement is an uncertainty, experts say.

"The reality is that we actually don't know the answers to that," said Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, a nonprofit in Washington D.C., promoting urban school improvement. Her group is studying the effects of new and renovated schools on test scores and dropout rates in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey.

"There is some research on it that says it's relevant. But there is very little that ... says if you have these kinds of conditions, you get these types of results with students," Filardo said. "There is this issue of fairness for the kids from the low economic communities. Well, if the wealthy kids have science class and meditation gardens, how come we don't have it for all children?"

In Massachusetts, State Treasurer Timothy Cahill said school districts and their architects have "gone wild" in planning new high schools resembling "Taj Mahals," fueled by generous state subsidies reaching up to 90 percent. For example, a new Newton North High School is being built for at least $186 million, the most expensive school in state history, though the state is paying only $47 million of it.

Massachusetts recently created the School Building Authority to bring costs under control, said Cahill, who also is the authority's chairman. Some new schools had opened half-empty, and others were so overbuilt that districts had to lay off teachers, he said.

Massachusetts now is considering cookie-cutter designs for schools, building more dual-purpose cafeteria-auditoriums called "cafetoriums," and pushing for municipalities to pay for the new pools and auditoriums if they want community access, he said.

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(c) 2008, Chicago Tribune.

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