The Department of Education & Early Development, Facilities Section, with its consultant, HMS, Inc., has completed an update of the school construction Geographic Area Cost Factors used in the department’s Program Demand Cost Model for Alaskan Schools.
The geographic factors were created with the first cost model in 1978; they were expanded to additional locations in 1996, and were last systematically updated in 2008. However, since their inception, and throughout all adjustments and updates, no record was retained by the department describing the makeup and basis of the factors—neither has there ever been a ‘public’ review of the factors. The intent of this 2018 update is to address both of those matters.
Attached for review are three documents:
- Geographic Area Cost Factors Change Summary,
- Geographic Area Cost Factors Component Element Matrix, and
- Geographic Area Cost Factors Component Backup.
DEED invites review of these documents and any feedback regarding the makeup of the factors and any data points used to make the specific calculations in support of the factors. In addition, the geographic factors are intended to reflect significant variations in construction costs when compared to other locations. If you believe that a particular location is improperly grouped within a listed geographic area, the department would welcome any support for that understanding. A rule of thumb in this consideration would be support that construction costs would vary more than +/- 5% from the geographic area in which that location is listed.
The comment period for responses will be 30 days. Comments may be emailed to Tim Mearig, Facilities Manager, at Tim.Mearig@alaska.gov or mailed to Tim Mearig, Division of Finance and Support Services, Department of Education & Early Development, P.O. Box 110500, Juneau, AK 99811-0500, so that it is received by noon (12:00 p.m.) January 22, 2019.