• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

$25.7M for New School ; Gov. Pledges State Funding

Posted on: Thursday, 22 September 2005, 12:00 CDT

Nearly $73 million in state funding is on its way to help build two more metro-area high schools, bringing to three the number to be built west of the Rio Grande to cope with fastpaced growth.

The state awarded Albuquerque Public Schools another $25.7 million Wednesday for a second new West Side high school, saying construction must begin in two years.

The two Albuquerque schools and a third in Rio Rancho means three new comprehensive high schools should be opening on the burgeoning West Side within the next five years. All are receiving state funding approved by the Public School Capital Outlay Council.

Last year, the state awarded APS $53 million in matching funds, including $23.3 million for a new northwest high school, which is projected to cost $70 million and was funded through a bond election earlier this year. That school is being built to relieve overcrowding at the 3,000-plus student Cibola High.

"New Mexico recognizes the most explosive growth and dynamism is happening right here," Gov. Bill Richardson said during an assembly of about 450 West Mesa High School civics and social studies students in the school's performing arts center and at least a dozen state, city, county and school district officials.

Rio Rancho received $47 million, the largest amount awarded by the council to any one district.

Bob Gorrell, director of the Public School Facilities Authority, said Rio Rancho was given the largest amount because of its need and its inability to raise that much money locally to pay for a new school.

The state awarded $229.4 million to 33 schools Wednesday, about $90 million more than was projected to be available due to record oil and gas revenues.

APS will have to come up with matching funds to build the second high school that will relieve the 2,790-student West Mesa school.

The council also gave APS an unexpected $5.6 million to pay for renovations at West Mesa.

"We're pleasantly surprised," principal Blanca Lopez said.

Funding another school

It was not immediately clear how APS was going to get the matching funds for the second school, which is projected to cost at least $100 million in its entirety.

The district's current plans call for a 2009 bond election to pay for the southwest high school's construction.

However, as a condition of the new funding, APS must begin building the southwest high school within the next two years, and must have its matching funds in place before it can start construction, Gorrell said. The district can, however, immediately tap into the funding to begin the planning and design phase. APS only recently agreed to purchase land on Universe south of Paseo del Norte for the school and hired an architect.

Gorrell said APS should be able to start work soon on the southwest high school because it has already hired a planner to coordinate the construction of the northwest school, which is expected to open in 2007 or 2008.

School board member Miguel Acosta said perhaps the Board

of Education needs to re-prioritize its projects in order to obtain construction funding in the 2006 bond election. However, several board members previously have expressed reluctance to delay renovations and classroom additions to the older schools in other parts of the district. "That's one of the concerns," Acosta said. "... How do we make sure all those things get done? If you refuse (the state money), it's not good." He noted that two years ago, APS had planned to open two ninth-grade academies on each end of the West Side, but had shifted to a reliever school for Cibola after the state awarded matching funds last year. Finding the money

Finding the money

Acosta wants the southwest school to be open to the community, and says maybe APS can tap into funding from the county and the University of New Mexico to help pay for the campus.

The new funding -- substantially less than the more than $40 million request APS made for the high school last month -- was nearly half the $46.9 million the state gave Rio Rancho for its new high school. Gorrell said that's because APS was docked $14.45 million for money it had received from the Legislature, a provision of state funding equalization laws resulting from a lawsuit filed by the Zuni school district.

APS also is trying to determine how the state wants it to use the award money for West Mesa, and if it can be applied toward the planned renovations of two classroom buildings that was funded in the last bond election, Chavez said.

Gorrell said the money can be used to bring West Mesa up to state adequacy standards, in areas such as roofing, lighting, air conditioning, bus dropoff areas, safety needs or classroom repairs.

"The solution was to build a new high school," Gorrell said. "... (but) you can't forget the school that caused the overcrowding to begin with." Principal Lopez said the school grew by 165 students over last year and added five more portable classrooms before classes began. "The biggest issue now is I don't have free space," Lopez said. The state also withheld a planned award of $775,000 to Amy Biehl Charter School for renovation of an old federal building. Gorrell said the school first needed to resolve some legal issues and could be reconsidered at the Capital Outlay Council's next meeting. Journal Staff Writer Elaine Briseo contributed to this report.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

More News in this Category