DUSD Reports At Least $184M Shortfall On School Facility Projects

DUBLIN, CA — The Dublin Unified School District will have to prioritize which school facilities projects matter most after discovering a shortfall of at least $184 million in seven of its highest-priority projects.

That number could be as high as $200 or $300 million, but DUSD staff has yet to closely scrutinize its six lower-priority projects, Superintendent Daniel Moirao said at a Jan. 26 DUSD Board of Trustees meeting.

The biggest discrepancy was reported in the cost to build the new Emerald High School, which was initially estimated to cost $167 million. Now that number has ballooned to nearly $270 million, according to documents that district staff presented during the meeting.

The open date of the high school has also been pushed back a year to the fall of 2023.

"It was a severe punch-to-the-gut here sort of thing because I wanted this whole [Emerald High School] project to be moving," he said. "I would never have anticipated I'd be presenting or a part of the presentation that we're doing tonight."

Staff began taking a closer look at the numbers at Moirao's request shortly after he took the helm of the school district. School officials said they haven't totally figured out what went wrong, but point to problems such as widening project scopes, COVID-19-related supply chain issues and escalating costs.

"Human error" was also cited as a reason for cost increases in a letter sent by Moirao to DUSD families.

"We simply do not have enough money to do everything we need to do," said Thomas Moore, DUSD assistant superintendent of facilities and construction.

Here's a list of the projects that are expected to cost more than originally thought:

• Emerald High School build (Phase 1): $270 million total; increase of $103 million since December 2019
• Emerald High School build (Phase 2): $118 million total; increase of $26 million since December 2019
• new middle school at Dublin Crossing: $131 million total; increase of $46 million since December 2019
• Dublin Elementary School modernization: $43 million total; increase of $10 million since December 2019
• district office space addition: $12 million total; $7 million increase since December 2019
• Dublin High School Parking Lot: $2.5 million total; not originally on the list in December 2019

The unexpected shortfalls raised questions among trustees.

"I feel totally sucker-punched," said Trustee Catherine Kuo. "It just really honestly makes me feel very nauseous."

Board Vice President Megan Rouse called for an investigation to determine how the errors were made.

"We're looking at these numbers," she said, "and I think we're all sort of saying, 'Wow, how did we get here and what happened?"

Her fellow trustees initially expressed a desire to focus on forging ahead instead of expending resources to scrutinize past mistakes of employees who may no longer be at the school district. The board reversed course at a subsequent meeting Feb. 9 after receiving public feedback.

Trustees unanimously voted to hire an investigating body to perform a fiscal and forensic audit. The investigators will report directly to the board.

The district also plans to hire a consultant to update its facilities master plan, which is outdated at five years old, Moore said. The new plan should be ready by August and include details such as student demographic information, how projects will be paid for, and when construction should begin and end. The board voted Feb. 9 to approve a $424,000 contract with San Jose-based LPA, Inc. Design Studios to complete the facilities master plan.

DUSD staff must present recommendations to the board at an upcoming meeting on how the district can complete projects already in motion, Moirao said in a Feb. 11 community update video.

Watch the full video here: