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Asbestos abatement begins at Cherry Creek; federal Title funding for next year remains uncertain
Summary
District staff reported ProTech Environmental began asbestos abatement at Cherry Creek after winning the low bid; separately the district said federal Title funding for the next year is frozen and allocations for titles 2–4 are uncertain.
Lowell Area Schools staff told the board on July 14 that asbestos abatement work has begun at Cherry Creek as part of a planned renovation and that the district is monitoring federal Title funding that remains on hold for next year.
Nut graf: The asbestos contract allowed the district to move ahead because the low bid was under the state bid threshold; the frozen federal funds could affect next year’s budgets for Title I and other federally funded programs.
Miss Hott, the district staff member providing the budget update, said the district placed the asbestos abatement contract with ProTech Environmental after receiving five bids that ranged from $26,000 to $129,200. Because the low bid of $26,000 was below the state bid threshold, the district awarded the contract without a separate board approval; ProTech began work the morning of July 14 and the initial phase of abatement was expected to take about one to two weeks.
On federal funding, Miss Hott said the U.S. Department of Education has frozen some allocations the district had expected for next year. “Right now, we’re just in a holding pattern,” she said. She told the board the state has released Title I funds to districts but that the state must rework application programming to push Title I separately from the other titles; the district’s Title I award last year was $291,000. She said last year’s combined allocation for Titles II, III and IV was about $94,350, and the district does not yet know allocations for those programs this year.
Ending: District staff said they will monitor state guidance and federal developments and bring budget updates as allocations are finalized. Contractors will continue asbestos abatement so the Cherry Creek renovation can proceed to bid for other trade work later in the month.
