Exactly three years after the 2006 tornado, the Caruthersville School District will be opening bids on building a new high school and it continues to work toward securing adequate funding. The board met last week in its regular meeting to be updated by Superintendent J.J. Bullington.
"Bids will be opened on April 2 for the construction of the high school," Bullington told the board. The district has been holding school in temporary facilities since April 2006.
Along those lines, Assistant Superintendent Ron Stutzman told the board he had received approval from FEMA for $1,269,816 on the facilities. After the $500,000 in insurance payments are subtracted, the district should receive more than $700,000 to help reimburse the cost that it has had to bear since 2006.
The district did receive disappointing news when the $5 million, no-interest loan that it would be requesting from DESE off of the passage of SB1170 did not make it into the supplemental budget. The request for the money in the budget failed in the House of Representatives.
"We are hopeful it will be included in the regular budget," Bullington told the board. "And we have every reason to believe that it will be. (Sen.) Rob Mayer and (Rep.) Terry Swinger have been working very hard along with Christy Ferrell from Claire McCaskill's office."
The money would be administered by DESE in the form of a no-interest loan for districts that have been hit by a natural disaster. The next budget cycle begins in June, so the district hopes to have more information next month.
The district is going to move ahead with construction utilizing insurance and other funds that it has available. As those funds become close to depletion, the district will look at other financing options, should they be necessary, but the construction timeline on both the middle school cafeteria and new high school are under way.
Half of the meeting was held without electricity, after a car hit a nearby utility pole. A lantern was quickly found and the meeting continued.