NEWMAN – Time is of the essence as the Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District pushes to finalize the approvals needed for its new Barrington Elementary School and secure its place in line for state matching funds before that pool of money dries up.

District voters in November approved a $25 million bond measure, from which about $7 million was to be paired with state matching funds to build the new east side K-5 campus.

Superintendent Rick Fauss said the district is working toward a mid-summer groundbreaking for the new school. But with the large number of California schools passing bond measures and a limited amount of state money available, he cautioned, there is also a possibility that the district will not be able to finalize its approvals quickly enough to be funded before the pot of matching money is drained.

“We are always a little nervous about state matching funds. We are a little worried about where we are in line. I just hope the funding is there for us,” Fauss said. “We are going to get the matching funds. It is just a matter of when, and we don’t want to have to wait until another state bond measure is passed.”

Projects are put in line for funding based on their approval date from the Division of the State Architect (DSA); against that backdrop, the district is working to finalize its site approval, finish environmental reviews and gain the city’s approval of the site plan. All must be completed before the final application can be submitted to DSA, Fauss said.

Concerns about traffic flow and pedestrian safety surfaced during the November Planning Commission meeting. Those issues are being worked out by the district and city staff, and the recommended solutions will go back to the commission for consideration Dec. 18.

City Manager Michael Holland said he did not consider any of the issues to be insurmountable.

“There were some concerns, mostly about the safe routes to school and about planning out a course to ensure that kids can arrive safely to avoid crossing too many streets,” Holland said. “We want to try to head off any traffic concerns early. We wanted to expand the view from the school site itself to see hot it affects the entire neighborhood.”

Holland said he does not believe traffic congestion will be a major problem at the location; in part because it is bordered by two major collector streets, Barrington and Eucalyptus, and in part because as a neighborhood school many students will walk to campus.

Fauss noted that a number of steps are being taken with student safety in mind.

“We want to make it where students are safely walking to school, and to encourage walking to school as much as possible. There is quite a bit of mitigation for safety, which is our biggest concern,” he stressed. “We have already agreed to put crossing guards at two intersections, and there will also be a lighted crosswalk across Barrington at Red Lion.”

That intersection was a concern because there is no four-way stop along Barrington which would be a natural crosswalk for students coming from the Sherman Ranch area, Holland said. The lighted crosswalk will allow students to activate lights imbedded in the street.

Fauss said plans call for the main entrance of the school to face Eucalyptus, with a bus drop-off zone situated off Crow Mountain.

Several alternatives have been presented to the city, he added. “I think we’re in sync right now,” the superintendent stated. “The traffic safety issues were paramount, and we have addressed those. We have given the city a number of options to consider.”

The elevations and color scheme of the new school must also go before the city’s Architectural Review Board.

“They want to make sure that it fits in, and I think it will,” Fauss said.

The district is also working with the state to finalize the site approval. The proximity of an air strip used by a crop duster is the only remaining concern on that front, Fauss said. He does not anticipate that being an obstacle because the aerial applicator flies only over the rural areas.

A consultant is completing the environmental reviews required under CEQA, Fauss noted.