DENVER – Mancos School District’s $24.7 million campus renovation plan has cleared its last bureaucratic hurdle.
The Legislature’s Capital Development Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to ratify the allocation of grant dollars to a list of lease-purchase projects approved by the State Board of Education last week. The committee’s approval is required for any new capital construction projects that use state dollars.
Rep. Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, said Wednesday’s vote was a final formality for the projects to ensure state funds are being used wisely.
The only questions asked by the committee were not about the specifics of the five projects, but the process for choosing them, Esgar said.
She said the committee wanted to ensure state funds were not going towards districts with declining enrollment and that buildings were not being abandoned.
“I just want to make sure it is the best use of dollars,” Esgar said.
The next step for Mancos District RE-6 is gaining voter approval for a bond measure to gather the nearly $5 million in matching funds the district is required to pitch in.
If the bond measure isn’t approved by voters, the $19.7 million in grant money would be given to one of a number of backup projects identified by the state Board of Education.
Brian Hanson, superintendent of RE-6, said he was ecstatic the projects had received the funding through the board and hopes construction will begin in 2018 should the bonding measure pass in November.
“It really is phenomenal,” Hanson said.
Lperkins@durangoherald.com
The Journal Staff Writer Jacob Klopfenstein contributed to this report.
