The Cutting Edge: COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : Intel’s Lesson in Corporate Philanthropy : Computers: The firm promises to build a high school if expansion bonds are approved.

The man in a business suit stood at the front of a school gymnasium crowded with seventh graders and held up a tiny Pentium computer chip, noting that it can do 100 million calculations a second.

But Intel executive Bill Sheppard said it could do more--much more--than that: “It can build you a high school.” The 600 or so members of Rio Rancho’s Class of 2000 erupted in ear-splitting cheers.

Intel Corp. announced Monday that it will help finance Rio Rancho’s first high school if the Sandoval County Commission, as expected, approves the computer chip maker’s request for $8 billion in industrial revenue bonds, mainly for a plant expansion here.

The company will pay at least $28.5 million for the school. No firm architectural plan has been presented, so there is no estimate of the final cost.

The high school would be leased to the district for $1 a year for the 30-year life of the bonds Intel is seeking. The district, staggering under a booming population and lack of tax revenue as a result of lavish relocation incentives granted businesses such as Intel, would have the option of buying the building, which is on land donated by Rio Rancho’s developer. Sheppard said the plan is the first of its kind in the nation.

Intel, with 4,200 employees in the state--most at a chip-making facility in Rio Rancho near Albuquerque--is one of New Mexico’s largest employers.

“We’ll have that symbol on the sign outside, you know, that round one: ‘Intel Inside,’ ” joked Rio Rancho School Board President Karla Walker.