Wednesday, April 16, 2003
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Wednesday, April 16, 2003 |
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Nervous BOE to seek bids on expanding Sandy Creek, McIntosh? By J. FRANK LYNCH
Though the deadline for beginning the bidding process on two high-profile school construction projects came and went this week, school board members will hear one last proposal to get construction going by the time summer comes around. Sandy Creek High will get a long-awaited auditorium and McIntosh High will get an expanded cafeteria, a newphysical education facility and a performing arts center carved from its present P.E. building in a near $12 million campaign. New construction at both schools involves tearing up the student parking lots and rebuilding them over summer before students come back in early August, a narrow window that makes project managers nervous. But the real holdup was doubt about capital funds designated to Fayette County for the construction of Whitewater High, said school system comptroller Jim Stephens. "A lot has yet to come through and there is lots of speculation out there," Stephens said. While plans for the new facilities are nearly ready to go, funding for more than half the projected cost $6.4 million is still tied up in the state's 2004 fiscal year budget quagmire. Monday, legislators voted to extend the 2003 session beyond its traditionally 40-day limit in hopes of finding some kind of solution to the $16 billion crisis. Proposed spending still outstrips anticipated state revenue by tens of millions of dollars, and budget writers in both the House and Senate remain far from agreeable on many key issues.
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