The story
What the records show
From July 2016 to August 2026 the Massachusetts School Building Authority approved 423 projects, 133 new or renovated schools and 290 roof, window and boiler repairs, with grants of up to $8.25 billion. After approval the Board added $412 million, 5.0% of the total, almost all of it the FY2024 supplemental grants for cost escalation, which raised those projects’ grants by 18%.
The 34 new and renovated schools approved since July 2016 that have closed with a final audit cost $2.74 billion against approved budgets of $2.95 billion, 7% under; two came in above budget. Approved budgets include contingency, so part of that is unspent contingency, not savings. Most of these projects were approved in FY2017–FY2020, before construction prices rose, so they say little about the projects still open. The final cost is the authority’s project budget at audit; costs a town carries entirely on its own outside that budget are not counted. At approval, the local share was 60% of the budgets of all 133 Core projects.
The authority publishes approved budgets and final audits, not revised budgets during construction, so the cost growth of open projects shows only where the Board voted more money.