Española School District officials will not receive state funding this year to renovate two local schools.
State Public School Facilities Authority officials rejected school administrators’ funding pre-application for the renovation of Chimayó and Hernandez elementary schools. They did, however, approve the pre-application for the renovation of Abiquiú Elementary.
District Facilities Manager Adan Cordova said the schools’ statewide ranking determined the fate of their pre-application.
“With the funding that’s available right now, they only looked at the top 50, instead of looking at the top 100,” Cordova said. “Being that there’s a shortfall in the state budget, they’re only concentrating on the top 50.”
Based on the state Public Education Department’s annual school rankings, Abiquiú Elementary ranked 18 this school year. Chimayó Elementary ranked 102, while Hernandez Elementary ranked 108.
Officials submitted, March 19, a $13.5 million funding application to the Authority. Española School Board members agreed to do so at a March 16 budget work session.
Based on current square footage costs, the estimated cost of constructing a new Chimayó Elementary is $8.8 million dollars, while a new Hernandez Elementary could cost $10 million. The renovation of Abiquiú Elementary could cost $2.7 million.
The projects total $21.5 million. The total amount officials are requesting from the Authority represents 63 percent of the total cost and the District will have to pay $8 million as its local funding match.
Cordova, who was in charge of submitting the pre-application, said he foresaw the Authority’s funding rejection for Chimayó and Hernandez elementary schools.
“But being that they were so close to the top 100, we felt that if there were sufficient funding, they would take those two schools into consideration,” Cordova said.
During a March interview, Authority Director Robert Gorrell said state officials had to be very selective when distributing funding to schools. He said the Authority faces a $57 million budget shortfall for Fiscal Year 2016.
Cordova said although Authority officials notified District administrators of the selective funding criteria, they still chose to submit the pre-application for all three schools because of a push from the School Board.
But he said he does not think submitting the pre-application was wasted work.
“It was a valid effort,” Cordova said. “We feel that those two schools are in need of replacement, so we felt that we should at least submit a pre-application and see how it went.”
Board member Ruben Archuleta said he initially agreed with the Board during discussions on whether to submit the pre-application for Chimayó and Hernandez, although he predicted what was going to happen.
“We figured that it was going to be rejected, but the Board still instructed them to submit the application,” he said. “I think it’s a valid effort and I just wanted to make sure we have enough money for it. When they recommended it, I was a bit leery.”
Archuleta said he would have preferred to submit the pre-application for Abiquiú Elementary, which was sure to be approved, this year. Then, the Board could have waited another year to submit the pre-application for the two other schools.
Archuleta said the Board plans to again file a state funding application for Chimayó and Hernandez elementary schools next year.
“I think we need to be more patient first, instead of dealing with three projects at the same time,” he said.
Cordova said officials plan to continue maintaining Chimayó and Hernandez elementary schools until it becomes feasible to do a full-scale facelift.
“They’re in need of renovation,” he said. “Their main deficiencies are heating, of course, lighting and roofing.”
As for Abiquiú Elementary, Cordova said he submitted the full funding application required after the approval of the pre-application, to the Authority, May 8.
He expected the Public School Capital Outlay Council to discuss the approval of the renovation at its July meeting.
If the Council approves funding the school, construction will start in June 2016, with an expected completion date of June 2017, Cordova said.