Students or Salamanders?

We call 'em CTS, and they're not Caddies. They're the California Tiger Salamander, and with most species listed as endangered, there's some that say they are and others that say they're not. In any case, this is the kind of craziness that comes from this stuff, as reported by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

The Bellevue School District could lose $4.8 million in state construction funds because the threatened California tiger salamander may live on the site of its proposed elementary school in southeast Santa Rosa.

An apparent misunderstanding had led the district's environmental consultants and school officials to believe no salamanders were at the site.

Now, the district, after a six-year effort to build the school, concedes that may not be the case. That leaves the district only four weeks to solve the salamander problem, win federal approval of the project and award a $13 million construction contract. Failure to do so by the end of February forfeits the $4.8 million from the state.

"We're still going to build the school," insisted Bellevue Superintendent Armando Flores. But he acknowledged that winning all the necessary approvals within the next month represents a "real challenge."