May 1999 Lessons Learned in School Design and Construction By Carl Rabenaldt and Emily Velz Schools are funded by taxes, and taxpayers expect their dollars to go a long way. They also want their schools to last. Sometimes durability costs more. Sometimes no more at all. And in many cases, a design option that is more expensive, but more durable, is cheaper in the long run.
More money is spent maintaining buildings than on building new ones.
Painfully enough, we spend millions fixing problems that could have been avoided. Often the more durable choice would not have cost any more than the least expensive choice. We saw the same mistakes repeatedly. Those mistakes are costing schools billions of dollars, and they can be prevented. That is why we have chosen to share the lessons we have learned.