CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The state School Building Authority has $54 million to award in school construction projects before the end of the year but that's less than 25 percent of the total money county school districts are seeking.
The SBA will hear from more than two dozen counties Monday and Tuesday in Charleston. The county school superintendents will have 10 minutes each to make their best pitch for why their project should be funded.
"We have 28 counties coming, we have $54 million roughly to work with and we have a little over $250 million requests," SBA Executive Director Andy Neptune told MetroNews.
The projects are at aimed at meeting educational needs.
Putnam County voters approved a multi-million dollar bond on election day with nearly $40 million to be used to build a new Hurricane Middle School. It's asking the SBA for an additional $25 million. Putnam County School Superintendent John Hudson will appear before the SBA Monday morning.
Kanawha County School Superintendent Tom Williams, who will also appear Monday morning, when he'll ask the SBA for more than $20 million to go toward a new elementary school to be constructed in the community of Belle. The Kanawha County Board of Education has already voted to close the four schools that would feed into the new school, pending money from the SBA.
Kanawha County is contributing $10 million in county funds for the project.
Monongalia County School Superintendent Eddie Campbell has a Monday afternoon appointment before the SBA. The county is seeking just short of $17 million for a new Suncrest Middle School. The county school system has set aside that exact total for the local share of the $34 million project.
"I think we've got a good project," Campbell said last week. "I have had the opportunity to tour Suncrest Middle with the School Building Authority, so they've seen the issues that we're dealing with, I think we've got as good a chance as any of the other three counties that are asking for new schools."
Neptune said the SBA staff has made visits to the sites across the state. He said a lot of information has already been produced before the final pitches Monday and Tuesday from the superintendents.
"I have been in 46 counties of our wonderful states and there are a lot of needs," Neptune said.
Some of the projects being requested aren't as expensive as building a new school. For example, Lincoln County is seeking $1.8 million for a chiller replacement and safe school entranced for Lincoln County High School. Superintendent Frank Barnett will appear before the SBA Tuesday morning.
Nicholas County, where new schools are being built in Richwood and near Summersville, is asking the SBA for $14.8 million for an addition and renovation project at the Nicholas County Career and Technical Center. Superintendent Terrance Beam has a Tuesday afternoon appointment with the SBA.
The SBA will do some final reviews over the next several weeks before announcing its decisions next month.
"That's when we get our pencils out and look at the matrix and see how it's going to score and then I'll come up with my recommendations to the authority members," Neptune said.
He said the decisions won't be easy.
"It causes you to walk the floor a lot at night when you are trying to make those decisions that you have to, to see who is going to get funding and who is not, because you know how much it factors into those communities," Neptune said.
The funding decisions will be announced at the SBA's Dec. 16 meeting in Charleston.