In spite of board members Frank Graves and Kyle Hoskins being unable to attend due to the time of year and them having to work the field, NCOE School Board leaders plowed forward Wednesday night taking care of official business. The big news out of the meeting was the school bonds have been sold. Superintendent Matt Vollman delivered the news.
We found out that it was advantageous for us to be patient and watch the market as we had indicated a couple months ago because the bond rates had dropped back down to a comparable rate to where they were in January. After the referendum we waited and watched the market. We initially were looking a 4.35% and we were able to sell it at 4.36%. So a 20 year term…the total investment income was $3,160,517.
And almost 70% of those bonds were taken by local banks. Board President Matt McArthy thanked First Bank and Banterra for their investment and commitment to the school district.
On behalf of the board, I would like to thank First and Banterra for stepping up and buying our bonds. According to Bernardi, they said they would’ve bought them all, but Bernardi had quite a few investors that wanted them as well. It says a lot that our local banks stepped in and did that for us and it saved us a lot of money. They believe in us.
School bonds are a way for a school district to borrow money to fund projects like new construction, renovations, technology upgrades, and safety improvements. Vollman says the work done over the summer cost upwards of a million dollars of the district’s own money. He has a list of future projects that the monies from the bond sale will fund and submitted that for board approval Wednesday night. It includes health, life, safety issues, updating the science lab, and security updates.
The board also heard from building principals Wednesday night, discussed the Title I School Wide plan and also the Facility Use Agreement. Furthermore, the board tabled a Select Spectrum Proposal that could potentially land the district some money. Leaders wanted to further consider options to maximize their position and bring the most money possible on a cell tower frequency lease that was obtained back in 2008. Currently, the school district makes about $12,000 per year on the lease. Those frequencies are worth much more now than they were in 2008 and it could result in a windfall that could make a significant difference financially for the school system.
Finally, the board approved an electric rate renewal through broker Affordable Gas and Electric with Direct Energy. The agreement is for the next 36 months at a rate of .10919 cents.
School Board recessed into executive session at about 8:15pm.