Though the deadline for beginning

the bidding process on two high-profile school construction projects came

and went this week, school board members will hear one last proposal to

get construction going by the time summer comes around.

Sandy Creek High will get a

long-awaited auditorium and McIntosh High will get an expanded cafeteria,

a newphysical education facility and a performing arts center carved from

its present P.E. building in a near $12 million campaign.

New construction at both schools

involves tearing up the student parking lots and rebuilding them over

summer before students come back in early August, a narrow window that

makes project managers nervous.

But the real holdup was doubt

about capital funds designated to Fayette County for the construction

of Whitewater High, said school system comptroller Jim Stephens.

"A lot has yet to come

through and there is lots of speculation out there," Stephens said.

While plans for the new facilities

are nearly ready to go, funding for more than half the projected cost

$6.4 million is still tied up in the state's 2004 fiscal year budget quagmire.

Monday, legislators voted to

extend the 2003 session beyond its traditionally 40-day limit in hopes

of finding some kind of solution to the $16 billion crisis. Proposed spending

still outstrips anticipated state revenue by tens of millions of dollars,

and budget writers in both the House and Senate remain far from agreeable

on many key issues.

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