DOD releases funding for reconstruction of Carter Lake Elementary

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Frances Kriss
  • 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  (Editor's note: This is a localized story from a news release distributed by the Office of U.S. Representative Norm Dicks.)

The Department of Defense recently released a total of $47 million that will allow re-construction of two schools, including Carter Lake Elementary School located at McChord Field.

Carter Lake and Hillside Elementary on JBLM Lewis Main, will be built at their current locations and are scheduled to be completed fall of 2013.

I was informed of the release of funds in an early morning phone call from the Pentagon Comptroller, said U.S. Representative Norm Dicks.

He also learned that Undersecretary of the Army Joseph W. Westphal would be traveling to Tacoma, Wash., for a July 30 groundbreaking at JBLM.

Carter Lake Elementary School will receive $24,028,028 in federal funding released June 25, 2012, in addition to $7.1 million in state funding to construct a new facility that will have capacity for 650 full-time students.

The funds come from a nationwide account that Dicks created two years ago after an internal Pentagon analysis found dozens of substandard school buildings located on military bases -including seven at JBLM operated by Clover Park School District.

At the time, Dicks served as Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and he re-directed a total of $250 million in defense funding to address the most urgent school facility needs around the nation.

The U.S. Army designated the Carter Lake and Hillside schools at JBLM for immediate replacement, and it is planning to replace four more schools at the base in succeeding years.