School officials continue to work to make sure the new Carrboro High School arts wing will be approved and funded as quickly as possible.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board voted unanimously at the last board meeting to approve the transfer of $78,600 in old project funds to complete the design and bid process of the project. The funds come from remaining balances on two older, completed renovation projects at Mary Scroggs Elementary and Glenwood Elementary. The two projects have a positive balance of $92,477 generated from sales tax refunds.

The move represents the next step in the process to break ground for the arts wing by winter. Once it starts, the project could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to complete.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners committed to the construction of the arts wing in June – as long as the school district could fund the project using federal stimulus, no interest loan money.

So far, the school district has received $1.9 million from the state in “Qualified School Construction Bonds” from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The district has also applied for an additional $2.7 million from the state’s Department of Public Instruction, which has leftover money from school districts in the state that did not apply to receive the extra funds. They’ll
hear back later this month about this money. When combined, these two sources
make up the entire cost of the project, estimated at $4.6 million.

An update on the project and a request to apply for bond funding will be presented at tomorrow night's county commissioners meeting.