Thanks to McCurdy Ministries, McCurdy Charter School will soon have a new building on campus.
The local nonprofit will build a structure that will contain a set of classrooms to accommodate nearly all the students of McCurdy Charter School, as well as the administration, staff and instructors, Patricia Alvarado, executive director of McCurdy Ministries said. The remaining students will be housed in classrooms within the gym and in an adjacent building located near the construction site.
Alvarado said the money to construct the building will come directly from McCurdy Ministries and the nonprofit is in the process of identifying sources to finance the venture. McCurdy Ministries is looking at New Market Tax Credit, rural development funding, or conventional means such as a banking institution. Construction of the new building is estimated to cost $5.1 to $5.2 million. McCurdy Ministries owns the property in which McCurdy Charter School currently operates, McCurdy Ministries Chairperson Marilyn Peabody said.
The Charter School will pay McCurdy Ministries for the development expenses through regular rental payments as it occupies the building. McCurdy Charter School will then receive money from the state, since New Mexico subsidizes charter schools, on a per-student basis, for the rent they pay as part of their regular operating expenses. The rent amount will depend on the number of students that enroll in the school.
“The agreement that we have is that we’re the landlord and they’re the renter and so the state provides funding for charter schools, if they’re not in their own space, to rent,” said Patricia Alvarado, McCurdy Ministries executive director.
A new building is being constructed because some of the classrooms that students presently occupy do not comply with the state’s standards and therefore, the classrooms must either be renovated or the students must be moved to occupy spaces that meet the standards.
“There’s a certain level of index that they need to meet and because our (facilities) don’t (meet the standard), it was cheaper actually to build a new building than it is to renovate and upgrade the older ones,” Chairperson of McCurdy Ministries Marilyn Peabody said.
As of right now, the building plan is still in its early stages. McCurdy Ministries is in the process of getting construction timelines and architectural drawings, doing feasibility studies and securing financing options.
McCurdy Charter School also has some planning to do. The McCurdy Charter School made an agreement with the state and the school must communicate those terms to the architectural company that is designing the building. That agreement will help determine the size and look of the building.
“It’s all in that most formative stages of the study and what it is that they’re going to need to do,” Peabody said.
Once the plans have been finalized, McCurdy Ministries will then decide whether it agrees with the plans or if it wants to pursue other options.
Both parties are hoping to break ground on the project within the next year.
McCurdy Charter School administrators could not be reached for comment regarding the project