LAUREL - Meridian School District is stopping the major remodel of its aging middle school, expecting to lose $12.3 million in state construction money.
That's because two bills moving through the Legislature would change how the state helps pay for school construction.
The measures, which have bipartisan support, would bar school districts from including Alternative Learning Experiences students who live outside the district in the calculation used for state funding for construction.
Alternative Learning Experiences programs are those in which students are taught off-campus, as with online courses or homeschooling.
"The concern of the Legislature is we're building space for kids that aren't coming to the brick and mortar school," said Gordon Beck, director of school facilities and organization for the state's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
But the measures assume that such students require no space, said Tim Yeomans, superintendent for the Meridian School District.
That's not the case for the district's popular Meridian Parent Partnership Program, often referred to as MP3.
The program lets parents partner with Meridian School District to collaboratively educate their children. It's like homeschooling, but with a network of professional educators providing curriculum and teaching support.
MP3 has 850 students. About 200 of them come and take classes in the district - in a rented space at Laurel Community Baptist Church large enough to accommodate them and adequate as classroom space. (OSPI has told Meridian to move the program out of the church, which is next to the high school, and into a regular school facility.)
More than 750 of the students in the MP3 program come from outside the Meridian School District, Yeomans said, with more than half of those coming from a district that doesn't have such a program.
Meridian school officials said they knew about the proposal but didn't think that it would affect construction projects, such as theirs, that were already in the pipeline.
"It was quite the surprise. We were given no awareness that such a thing was being worked on," said Tim Yeomans, superintendent for the Meridian School District.
Both measures likely will be passed and approved by the governor. That would in turn stop the July release of state funding from the School Construction Assistance Program.
Two other school districts in the state also would be affected: Eastmont, which could lose $781,078; and Yakima, which could lose $349,565 in state construction help.
When Meridian school officials first heard about the proposal Jan. 3, they initially worried that three planned renovation projects in the district - Meridian High School, putting Irene Reither Primary School and Ten Mile Creek Elementary School into one building, and the middle school - would be hurt.
But the high school and elementary school renovations will continue.
Yeomans was diplomatic about the state's cost-cutting proposal.
"Our school board realizes that the state has a huge job," he said. "While they (board members) are disappointed that we will not be able to begin the middle school project this summer, they remain committed to finding a way to undertake what's required at the middle school in the future."
Construction is under way on the $25.4 million high school renovation, and the $15.5 million elementary school project is expected to go out to bid this summer. Both projects should be completed by fall 2013.
The local money for those renovations came from a $17 million bond voters approved in February 2010 and $900,000 from the school board. The state contributed $23.1 million.
Meanwhile, the district is asking the state to repay $110,000 Meridian already has spent on the middle school project for costs related to design, conditional use permits, architectural fees and engineering.
"We appreciate the difficulty on them, their board and members of the community," said Beck of OSPI.
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