Bond "Surplus" Meeting on November 9, 2010

The title of this post is a link to the audio recording of the November 9 meeting on the disposition of the bond "surplus." You can click on the link to listen to Mike Maloney's explanation of the fund balance (surplus) remaining in the 2008 high school bond. I've only included the first 16 minutes of so of the meeting but would be happy to post the remainder if anyone is interested in the full two+ hours. Joseph Hunter was sick that evening and did not attend the meeting. The people asking questions are Steve Moser, Mike Ainsworth, Kathy Zehner, Eric Olsen, and Jon Carey. The documents they refer to are reproduced above. Fund 401 is the 2008 bond; Fund 403 is the Capital Improvement Fund that resides within the district's annual operating budget.

There are several issues that come up in this discussion: 1) The so-called "artificial turf" project in Fund 403 includes many elements that were originally part of the bond but are now going to paid for with the new $2 million low-interest stimulus loans; 2) Calling the entirety of the stadium upgrades "turf" is causing confusion and discord - the artificial turf itself, along with the field preparations, cost far less than $1.2 million (around half of the total); 3) The bond is not really under budget - things promised as part of the bond have been shifted to Fund 403 and will be paid for with the new loans.

I do wish someone had asked this question, "Last spring we were told that all bond funds had been either expended or encumbered with only $45,000 remaining in the budget. Now you say we can pay for the eye clinic with bond funds and still have an $831,000 fund balance. Where was this money last April?"

I strongly suspect that this money was hidden away so that the 16th Street project, long desired by Hunter, could proceed as planned.

I doubt that will happen anytime soon. The general sentiment of the group (I was there as an observer, not a participant) is that it makes more sense to leave the portables in place at the high school for the foreseeable future. Four of them are currently in use. If they are moved to the 16th Street site, the teen parents and the alternative education program will once again need to be moved, along with the apartment program that is part of the life skills training for special education students. Mike Maloney suggested that they could move into the high school which is, in my opinion, a terrible and completely unworkable idea. The teen parents need to have the day care restored but the day care cannot and should not be housed in the high school. We already know that the alternative education kids don't do well in the regular high school environment and need an off-site location. And where would we locate the apartment program within the high school?

There was also some discussion about moving any projects currently planned in Fund 403, that can legally be paid for with bond monies, back into the bond budget. These projects would include some elements of the stadium project and all of the HVAC upgrades for other schools. This would pretty much eliminate the bond surplus once some of the small projects (extra lighting, some painting, etc) remaining at the high school are completed. It was suggested by Barb Welander that we could then pay down the principle on the low-interest loans in Fund 403 and lessen the impact of the 16 year repayment schedule on the general fund. Currently, the district will have to pay around $130,000 annually for those loans.

There are obviously a lot of decisions that need to be made. Additional meetings have not yet been scheduled but I'll keep you posted.