JOPLIN, MO.--- "It could be over a million dollars of additional funding," states Paul Barr, CFO of Joplin Schools.
A million dollars the district must now try to get FEMA to provide. This finding is based on FEMA's estimate of a project to move the future Joplin High School out of a flood plain. The school will be built on the same grounds but farther back on the property.
"We wanna raise some issues with FEMA that we think were left out by the original effort by FEMA," states Barr.
Small details that may have been over looked, Joplin School Board members are on a mission to correct those mistakes. School leaders say meeting certain city codes is necessary and wasn't in FEMA's orginal plans.
"Where the batting cages were, does the baseball field fit there? Does it meet city code and ordinances to be far enough from the street," states Barr.
They say finding these issues in the initial assessment is normal.
"Both FEMA and Joplin Schools are about getting it right. Let's do complete work, let's make it right, fair, defensible," states Dr. C.J. Huff, Joplin Schools Superintendent.
"We have the opportunity to look at these FEMA project worksheets that their staff put together. Then we have the opportunity to have a conversation about whether we believe the numbers are justified or not justified," states Barr.
Joplin schools will hire a private architectural firm within the next few weeks to provide a new estimate of the flood plain relocation.
"Once they've done that assessment then we'll present our findings to FEMA, and then we'll have a conversation about how our numbers are different than theirs. We'll work on a project worksheet from that point," states Huff.
School board members are confident they will be able to get the additional million dollars of funding from FEMA. It could still take several months before the negotiation is finalized. The entire project will be funded by SEMA, FEMA, and the school district.
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