New-school meeting with state went well

Getting the state’s attention, is one thing, keeping it is another.

School Superintendent Dennis Carlson and new-school architect Laurence Rose both had encouraging remarks after meeting with officials in the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction last week.

Their task was to convince state officials that the district here is really on the fast track for getting its K-12 new school project started.

At issue is whether state school officials will see this project as “shovel ready”.

The state education office has a certain routine that districts typically go through before starting school projects. The local district’s contention is that it has done all this and only waits for the state to release $17 million that is in the state budget for the Grand Coulee Dam School District K-12 project.

Both Carlson and Rose stated that it was a good meeting.

Carlson said he thought the $17 million would be available to the district as soon as the state sells its bonds. He said he was encouraged by conversation he had with Randy Dorn, the state superintendent.

“We are prepared to move forward and stay on our fast-track schedule,” Rose stated.

The district has indicated that it would like to go out for bid in January, 2013, start construction soon afterward and occupy the new facilities in the fall of 2014.