news-record.com

EDEN — Stimulus money may help Rockingham County Schools get a new Douglass Elementary sooner rather than later.

The school board is seeking approval to sell $12.4 million in bonds through the state’s Qualified School Construction Bonds Program. The program was established with money from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

School officials would use the money to build Douglass Elementary, one of four new schools the county needs.

Bill Holcomb, associate superintendent of Rockingham County Schools, said the district received authorization last month to sell about

$2 million in bonds through the program. It recently learned that the state has $86 million remaining that can be allocated for school construction.

If the state approves the district’s request, the county would be able to repay the money without interest, Holcomb said. Rockingham officials could start construction as early as March.

The key to receiving stimulus money for a construction project is that the project must be “shovel ready.”

The bond program requires school districts be far enough along in the planning stage so that the bonds can be issued by the end of the year, with construction starting soon afterward. That’s according to a memo the state Department of Public Instruction sent to superintendents and county commissioner chairmen last month.

“It kind of pushes you to get it going,” Holcomb said.

Rockingham schools officials already have begun design work on the new Douglass site. The district is buying land next to the current site on Center Church Road in Eden to build the school.

The Board of Education voted in February to build a new Douglass, a former all-black school. The school’s auditorium, which has sentimental value for its minority alumni, will remain standing.

The district also needs to renovate Reidsville High School and build new Draper and Stoneville elementary schools. Those projects have been put on hold because of lack of funding.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com