Northwest Arctic district needs a $2.6 million match for $6 million Deering school grant

Northwest Arctic Borough School District board members were asked Sept. 29 to accept a $6 million state grant to start the Deering K-12 replacement school. The money would pay for design work to 65% completion, the gravel pad the school will sit on and its foundation piles.

The district must supply about $2.6 million, its 30% local share of the roughly $8.6 million project phase. The state sets that 30% rate for the Northwest Arctic Borough based on its taxable value per student. A district match table from September showed $433,000 in hand and about $2.1 million still needed.

A district memo names one possible source for the match: about $850,000 left over from the borough's Kivalina Replacement School bond, which could be requested for reuse "upon board direction."

The same agenda asked the board to raise the Burkhart Croft design team's contract by up to $1.4 million. No minutes have been posted, so whether the board approved the grant, the match or the contract increase is not yet on the record.

The grant comes from the state capital budget signed June 24. The state ranked the Deering project second of 14 on its school construction priority list for the fiscal year.

An earlier state grant of about $1.7 million, matched by $333,000 in district funds, is paying for survey work, site design, a cultural resources study, permitting and gravel extraction and hauling. Survey and site design are done, Capital Projects Manager Dena Strait reported.

The gravel pad will go out for bid this fall. If Brice Inc., the state transportation contractor already working in Deering, wins, pad work finishes in March or April 2027 and piles go in a year later. Otherwise, the work would run from late 2027 to early 2028.

The school building itself has no funding yet. The district applied by Sept. 21 for a $64 million state grant for construction, with about $44.9 million expected from the state and $19.3 million from the borough as the local match. If funded, construction would run from summer 2028 to 2029 or 2030.

State school construction grants do not cover work off school property, such as water and sewer lines to the site, estimated at $8.4 million. "A separate funding source is needed for this work, at this time, there are no leads for that source," Strait wrote.

The grants also do not pay for teacher housing, estimated at $8 million to $10 million for at least seven units. Her report said a funding source is needed this fall to build in summer 2027.