The Goshen County School District Board voted late last month to renovate the old Torrington middle school, but some of the state funding for part of the project is now in question.

The district planned to use about $3.1 million previously allocated by the Wyoming School Facilities Commission to renovate part of the school into new administrative offices, but Superintendent Ray Schulte and other district officials learned in a conference call last week the commission might not be able to provide all of those funds.

Schulte described the news as terribly frustrating and said it’s not the first time the district’s run into problems with the commission.

“We assumed that that commitment was going to be honored,” Schulte said.

The district also plans to use $367,063 from its capital construction fund for the renovation project, but the overwhelming amount of funding was penciled in to come from the state level.

Ken Daraie, director of the facilities commission, verified earlier this week that the entity is reexamining its funding commitment to the district.

He said his staff has been asked to be as conservative as possible in considering proposed school projects across the state.

“We have to scrutinize every project more closely,” he said.

Daraie said he thinks the project the district is pursuing is a good one that’s been on the board for quite a while, but added that the state’s budget situation means his staff and the commission have to take into economic factors as well.

“It’s a good thing for the state, it’s just a matter of being able to do it under the current environment,” he said.

While Dariae said it wouldn’t likely be until sometime in January that the district finds out how much money it will receive for the project, he said his current projection puts the amount at a mark too significantly less than the original one.

“We’re shooting for $2.9 (million), Daraie said.

However, if budget conversations keep heading south, Daraie said it’s a very real possibility that the commission might be asked to either freeze or pull the plug on school projects across the state.

“We just have to wait and see,” he said of the situation.

In the meantime, Schulte said he’s not sure what kind of decision to expect from the facilities commission.

“I don’t know if their intent is to reduce the cost of the project, to kill the project, if it’s to downsize the project. I don’t know, I really don’t,” he said.

Additionally, Schulte said the architect the district hired about one year ago has already spent time making project drawings, which leads him to wonder if all of the money spent on that facet of the process will go to waste.

With the state funding still up in the air, the school district is also slated to appear before the facilities commission Dec. 8 in Cheyenne seeking to gain approval to spend district funds on the other portion of the old middle school renovation, Daraie said.

The district plans to spend $568,391 to renovate the gymnasium, locker rooms and 4,000 square feet of space for an alternative learning room or weight room.

However, Daraie said it’s highly unlikely the commissioners would vote to disallow the spending, as the process is more for record-keeping purposes than anything else.

Schulte has said in the past the gymnasium space would be widely used for district sports and activities, and the city and county Joint Powers Board has also expressed interest in possibly leasing or renting the gym.

In spending capital construction monies on both parts of the renovation, the district will completely drain that fund.





For the complete article see the 11-20-2009 issue.

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