SBA proposals were due on Monday. Raleigh County's didn't include any local funding for the $7.5 million project. But School Board President Rick Snuffer says that doesn't mean they're not willing to fork over some cash.

"We didn't include in that request a site or site prep. We're hoping to work either ourselves or hopefully with Massey Energy to maybe get that part of it be our contribution toward the project,’ Snuffer said.

So far, the school board has not approached Massey.

"We're trying right now to find some property in the area. And then once that's done we will be approaching Massey about assistance,” Snuffer told MetroNews Wednesday.

Raleigh County isn't the first school system to make a funding request to the SBA without putting up some money of its own. A few of those projects have even been funded. But the SBA's motto is 'helping those that help themselves.'

Snuffer doesn't feel awkward asking the SBA for full funding for a new building.

"You look at the Marsh Fork/Coal River area. I would say the state over the years has obtained over a billion, not a million, probably a billion dollars, in coal severance tax from that area. Yet those people who live in that area, they haven't had a new facility in 70-some years,” he said.

On a scale of one to ten, Snuffer ranks the need for a new Marsh Fork Elementary an eight. And he stresses, it's not just because Massey's Goals Coal operation sits less than 300 feet from the school. Snuffer says the building sits in the flood plain.

Snuffer says the Raleigh County Board of Education isn't asking for a handout. They're just requesting their fair share.

"Can we survive if we don't get it? Yes. But it would just correct so many problems in that area,” he said.

The SBA will hear a presentation next spring from each county who applied for funding. Snuffer says they'll make their case at that time.