Moray Council will submit a funding bid that could see two secondary schools in the area replaced.
Councillors agreed to put forward an application for money from the Scottish Government for a new Forres Academy and Buckie High School at a meeting this week.
They voted by 14 to 10 to hold the debate in private for fear of influencing the outcome of a by-election in Buckie to be held on November 3.
It was triggered by the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor Christopher Price in August.
If the bid to phase three of the learning estate investment programme is successful it could fund up to 50% of the costs of replacing the schools.
The price of building a three to 18 campus at Forres is put at £87.4 million, with a similar one at Buckie expected to be £95.7 million.
There is also options for secondary schools with community hubs costing £79.2 million at Forres and £84.1 at Buckie.
While the coastal secondary can be built within its existing boundary, the land will have to be bought to accommodate a new Forres Academy with Roysvale common good land the preferred choice.
Decision after by-election
A decision on the local authority’s preferred school to go forward will be taken after the by-election, although Forres Academy was identified as the priority project in the papers that went before councillors on Wednesday.
The application will have to be submitted by the end of October.
A spokesperson for the local authority said: “Elected members are supportive of investing in our learning estate and agreed to submit a bid for funding to the Scottish Government learning directorate learning estate investment programme phase three for both the Forres and Buckie areas.
“Due to the pre-election period now in place for the by-election in the Buckie ward on 3 November it would be inappropriate to comment further on specifics of any bid until after that time.
“A decision on prioritisation will be made following this election period.”
Forres Academy is in a worse state than Buckie High but only just.
It has a D standard for the condition, which is the worst a school can be rated.
Buckie is deemed to be poor with a C mark, but as that assessment was done five years ago there are fears it could have fallen into the lowest category.
Both are below the minimum requirement of a double B mark for condition and suitability.
Cash bid to replace two schools
While Forres ranks as B in terms of the size and flexibility of classrooms for learning and teaching, Buckie has a C rating.
Those are likely to drop because of the declining condition of the buildings.
Over the last eight years, the council has spent almost £5 million trying to sort out problems at Forres but it has continued to deteriorate.
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