Money Earmarked for New Las Cruces Schools
By Ashley Meeks, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.
Aug. 2–LAS CRUCES — A planned middle school in Las Cruces has been awarded $3.12 million and an estimated $20 million has been set aside for it and a planned high school, according to a Public School Capital Outlay Council report.
The new middle school, to be located in the Peachtree Hills and Jornada Road area, is expected to cost around $40 million and open in 2010; the new high school, to be located off Dripping Springs Road, is expected to cost $100 million and open in 2011.
The completion of the high school also will necessitate a full redistricting and feeder system.
While the state committee did not announce any new funds for a planned elementary school, also to be located in the Peachtree Hills and Jornada Road area, Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Stan Rounds said LCPS has a financing plan in place for that school.
“I think they understand our growth and our needs and the message that we are going to need those funds,” said Rounds, who appeared before the PSCOC on Wednesday.
Joyce Jones, a Sunrise Elementary School school-advisory committee member and mother of three who lives in the Peachtree Hills area, said she’d seen overcrowding in her children’s special education classrooms at Sunrise and
Camino Real Middle School.
“The administration was really good. I felt that they knew my daughter,” Jones said. “The problem I had with overcrowding, they grouped the kids with behavioral problems in with the students with true developmental disabilities.”
Jones said the same was true for her son at Sunrise: “The teacher can’t get to them all at once,” she said. She said the new schools will help, “but that’s years down the line. I wish they could get it done a little quicker.”
David Abbey, director of the Legislative Finance Committee and PSCOC awards committee member, said the $20 million estimate isn’t an award, but is set aside “for when they’re ready for the next step.”
“It’s $3.1 million to kick this off with the prospect of $36 million when they’re ready to finish this thing,” Abbey said. “We think (the middle school) will be about a $40 million project, so we awarded $536,000 a year ago, $3.1 million (Wednesday) and we think it’ll take another $36 million to finish it.”
As for the high school, which is expected to funnel students from near-capacity Onate High School, Abbey said the state is forecasting to set aside another $51 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
“It’s very important we get that locked in,” Rounds said. “That helps us in our planning because we have some surety that the dollars are set aside. It also means that these projects are at the pinnacle, the top of their consideration.”
Rounds called the $20 million in “off-cycle” funds, to be available on an as-needed basis, “a big support point,” adding that the state set aside $32 million in such funds for projects throughout New Mexico.
“The ball is in the (school) district’s court to bring those projects to readiness,” Abbey said. “It’s good news. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
Ashley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com
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