School officials are taking $35 million out of a Denver Public Schools’ bond reserves fund, and Thursday night the board of education will vote on the bond committee’s recommended projects.
The bulk of the money, more than $20 million, would cover expansion and renovation projects like replacing a 10-year-old mobile classroom at KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy and finishing construction on a third building at the new Paul Sandoval campus in Stapleton.
The also include $7 million for new technology tools and updates and $8.3 million for school maintenance — replacing boilers, expanding fire suppression systems and new stage curtains in three elementary schools because their fire retardant failed.
“The list of projects really is trying to look across the city to where our needs are,” said David Suppes, the district’s chief operating officer. “We’ve got a lot of high-priority needs, but we are trying to provide some equity to different parts of the city.”
Forty-two schools submitted requests for funds.
Originally the bond oversight committee was to allocate $30 million. It was later given approval by the district’s financial planners for $35 million because previous projects stayed close to budget.
The account, called the “premium reserves,” has about $52 million that the board had set aside for unanticipated costs or budget changes.
The reserves are part of the in state history when it was approved in 2012. The bond already has funded multiple projects, including .
During a discussion Monday of the recommendations, school board members thanked the district and the bond committee for their work narrowing down the most important projects to be funded.
“When we plan out the overall bond, we look at the cost of individual projects, but there’s also other things we want to plan for like inflation,” Suppes said. “We didn’t know exactly which projects will experience them and to which degree.”
About halfway through the bond projects, officials say things have stayed close to budget freeing up money for new projects.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or twitter.com/yeseniarobles
