$21 million unfrozen for Pennsylvania school construction

State officials approved $21.6 million in long-delayed school construction money Friday, two years after the government froze the payment process for 360 projects statewide.

The money, a small fraction of what the state owes, will fund buildings and renovations for 41 schools in 27 districts, including five in Western Pennsylvania.

Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said she is “hopeful that as we progress through the current fiscal year, the department will be able to approve additional projects as more funding becomes available.”

Among the projects approved were Bethel Park High School, Chartiers-Houston High School, Montour High School and its district administration office, Penn Hills High School and Pittsburgh Public Schools' University Preparatory School, Science and Technology Academy at Frick and Concord Elementary School.

Legislators let a two-year moratorium blocking state funding for new school construction projects expire in June, expanding a financing process that at the time was overcommitted by $1.7 billion statewide.

PlanCon, the Education Department's acronym for Planning and Construction Workbook, stopped taking applications when legislators halted the process in October 2012. Applications submitted before that progressed slowly but stalled at the step before payments were approved.

Schools apply through an 11-step process for partial reimbursement from the state for construction and renovation projects.

“We're just grateful they gave us what they did,” Pittsburgh Superintendent Linda Lane said.

The district received $1.1 million for renovations and additions for its schools, all built in the 1920s and ‘30s.

“We were in the middle of the projects when they suspended (PlanCon) out of nowhere,” Lane said. “They could stop paying, but we couldn't.”

State spokesman Tim Eller said 360 projects await funding.

Rep. Seth Grove, R-York County, who has pending legislation that aims to streamline the approval process, said this month that 211 projects are in the process of getting funding.

Eller blamed PlanCon's problems on a $30 million deficit former Gov. Ed Rendell left behind, “which forced the department to halt further approvals until the deficit was eliminated,” he said.

The Education Department eliminated that deficit in March 2014, he said, and approved six projects for reimbursement during the 2013-14 school year after the state's budget for payouts increased to $306 million, a bump of about $10 million.

Additional money became available after projects were paid off or refinanced by schools at lower interest rates.

Source: Tribune Live