Area schools receive capital outlay money
Oct. 4—Portales schools will receive about $1.1 million in public school capital outlay funding as part of an appropriation to schools statewide in Senate Bill 212.
Clovis Municipal Schools received $3.1 million, as reported in Sunday's edition of The News.
Some of the smaller school districts received substantially less funding.
Brandon Hays, superintendent of Dora Consolidated Schools, said they will receive $100,000, which he said was the least amount any school will receive.
Hays and several of the other area school superintendents said they knew few details about the bill and how the decision was made to disperse the funds.
The News unsuccessfully attempted to contact the Public School Facilities Authority and the New Mexico state Senate for more information about the disbursements. "PSFA is your portal for requesting PSCOC (Public School Capital Outlay Council) funds administered by New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority," as stated on the website.
Melrose Municipal Schools Superintendent Brian Stacy said they had a "really tight deadline" to get their request in and the schools will have one year to spend the money. The schools had to apply and get (their requests) in right away."
Melrose schools will receive $173,000, Stacy said. The district plans to spend the money on replacing the water and sewer lines in their buildings — one built in 1924 and the other in 1942. A second priority would be to purchase a new security system.
The school board will meet on Monday to discuss the plan on how to spend it, he said.
Portales Schools Superintendent Johnnie Cain said they requested the money, in order of priority, to put a new roof on the junior high school, for a new roof on the high school agricultural building and for a heating and cooling system at Lyndsey-Steiner Elementary School.
The school board discussed the plan as to how to spend the funding at its recent meeting.
Floyd schools Superintendent Damon Terry said they will receive about $291,000, which they requested to use to renovate the gym floor and make improvements to the bus loading and unloading zones. Other priorities include playground improvements, door security, bathroom renovations, roofing and a scoreboard replacement, to name a few items.
The school board discussed this matter at its September meeting, Terry said.
Grady Municipal Schools Superintendent Keith Durham said they will receive $276,000, which will pay to complete the school roofing replacement. They would also like to install lights at the football field.
Superintendent TandeeDelk of Elida Municipal Schools said in an email: "Elida received $160,195 in HB 212 funds. The intended scope of work will be for maintenance and repair of district facilities. This could include building improvements, floor improvements, security improvements, bathroom renovations, and/or locker-room renovations."
The News also contacted the Texico school district but did not receive a comment by press time.
