At its meeting Tuesday night, Newton-Conover City Schools' board members approved a request asking for an additional $19.7 million in interest-free loans to build the new middle school, which is estimated to cost $21 million.
The school system plans to build a new middle school at the intersection of County Home Road and Northern Drive in Conover.
The school board has already requested a little more than $1.2 million from the Qualified School Construction Bond program, which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Under this program, schools can receive zero-interest bonds for new construction, renovation or repairs to schools. The loans must be paid back within 12 years.
North Carolina was allocated $275,772,000 from the program. Catawba County received $5 million of that.
To be eligible for the money, school systems had to have paperwork for the projects submitted by July 31. The bonds will be issued by Dec. 31. Because not all the school systems in the state had projects ready, or were not able to finance the rest of the project, some school systems didn't apply for the money, leaving several million available for school systems to re-apply for.
Kathy Carswell, director of finance for Newton-Conover City Schools, said she doesn't expect the school system will be approved for all $19.7 million in interest-free loans. However, systems were allowed to apply for the whole project, Carswell said.
The actual cost of the new construction for the middle school is estimated at $19,876,091. The design fees for the school are estimated at $1,123,909. The school system has already purchased the land.
Work on the new middle school is scheduled to begin in early 2010, and be completed in 2012, with students in the building by that August. The school will have a core capacity of 950, with 800 students.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement