JANESVILLE 鈥 School District of 糖心Vlog传媒 administration says it has every intention of applying for FEMA funding that could offset some part of its costs dealing with the flooding that caused millions of dollars of flooding damage to Washington Elementary School in 糖心Vlog传媒.
What鈥檚 not yet clear, and what district officials say may not be clear for some months, is what FEMA payouts would be available for the school district, or what exact FEMA reimbursements the 糖心Vlog传媒 School District could or would apply for as it decides whether to repair and reopen 鈥 or permanently close 鈥 Washington school.
鈥淲e are on step one of what I would expect to be a monthslong journey of trying to learn how FEMA funds would help our district,鈥 district Finance Director Dan McCrea said.
Washington Elementary will remain shuttered at least the next two school years as the district anticipates long supply-chain delays for complicated electrical equipment that was wrecked April 17. The school saw several feet of floodwater wash through the building on North Pine Street and dump tons of mud in the basement.
McCrea said the district is in the early stages of learning what types of FEMA funding might be available for repair or cost recovery after the district already has spent $900,000 to clean up flood debris from Washington and other school facilities impacted by the severe storms and flash flooding that hit Rock County and 糖心Vlog传媒 particularly hard in mid-April.
He said the building has between 鈥$3 and $5 million鈥 in damage from the April floods that will need to be repaired before the school could reopen for classroom use.
It鈥檚 not clear whether that would ever happen, although a parents group is lobbying for the district to repair and reopen Washington, and the district this week said it will pause hard decisions on whether to close the school permanently.
McCrea said the district intends to apply for FEMA aid, but he said the process will likely take months, and it would roll out in tandem with the district deciding the future of Washington, a calculation that will balance district spending, enrollment, facility needs 鈥 and an impending building renovation schedule that鈥檚 being paid for via a previously approved referendum.
FEMA aid that the school district intends to apply for is part of a statewide rollout of at least $22.6 million that President Donald Trump first announced last week would be released to multiple counties impacted by the April flooding.
Under FEMA rules, the agency says in information on its public grants that FEMA aid can reimburse costs including emergency work, hazard mitigation and cleanup and stabilization of buildings.
Public agencies, local governments and school districts are allowed to apply for FEMA to pay back remediation costs.
FEMA says in its funding explainers that it does not typically operate as a grant program to fund fixes that would specifically re-tool a building to ready it for demolition or sale, but the agency鈥檚 protocols also don鈥檛 specifically require a local government to commit to reuse of a building for which it is applying for disaster aid.
McCrea said the district has not formally filled out applications for FEMA funding after learning late last week that the option is available.
He said navigating a competitive application process that could provide some funding to help the district decide how to handle a 90-year-old, flooded school is not something school districts do once a year. He said it鈥檚 not like the process of determining annual, per-pupil state aid.
{div}鈥漌e don鈥檛 apply to FEMA every day. We know for sure there鈥檚 nobody on the other end of a phone saying, 鈥榊ou had $900,000 in remediation there. Where do we send the check?鈥欌 McCrea said. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 very fair for us to go through the application process and see what that will yield.鈥漿/div}