Improvements to the Woodlawn School District campus including expansion of the school cafeteria and a new career education building have been improved but state help in funding the projects is still to be determined.
According to the Cleveland County Herald newspaper, Woodlawn School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Hancock told the school board that the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation has notified the school that both of its projects have been accepted into the partnership program but the size approved was smaller than what the district wanted.
The state will pay 70 percent of the costs associated with the projects but just because a project is accepted doesn’t mean that it will be funded as only a certain amount of money is set aside and that money is awarded on a competitive basis from all the projects submitted across the state.
The decision on which projects will be funded will be announced May 1, 2025, Hancock said. He went on to say that the state uses a figure of $240 per square foot for construction costs but actual construction costs is now between $300 and $350 per square foot.
Hancock also told the newspaper that what he told the board was strictly for information purposes and said no decision has been made on either project.
