Borrowing will still be necessary for Unit 5 to make summer repairs while the district waits for revenue from the countywide sales tax to come in.
The school board approved a resolution during Wednesday night’s meeting allowing the district to take out general obligation school bonds. The resolution allows up to $15,450,000 in bonds to be taken out, but the school plans to keep that closer to $10 million with a four-year payback plan.
Marty Hickman, Unit 5 chief financial officer, said this lower amount of borrowing is because sales tax revenue will help Unit 5 pay off the debt on the back end.
“We can achieve a goal of paying less interest on those bonds, and we can do that now because we have this [sales] tax revenue,” said Hickman.
The district has scheduled to sell the bonds Monday, but that date may change if market volatilities change interest rates.
Big summer projects include roof replacements at Normal Community High School and Chiddix Junior High, building automation systems at Prairieland, Grove, Fox Creek and Northpoint, a pool elevator at Normal West High School, chiller replacement at Kingsley Junior High and water main replacement at Colene Hoose Elementary School. Other projects will be completed over the summer across the school district as well.
The sales tax takes effect July 1. Superintendent Kristen Weikle said the district expects the revenue from the sales tax to come around October and continue on a monthly basis thereafter. Despite the wait, Hickman said $9,450,000 in revenue is estimated for the district over the next fiscal year.
Hickman added that because that total would not quite cover planned expenses in facilities repairs, taking out bonds instead is a way for the district to still fulfill its commitment to property tax abatement.
When Unit 5 sets a new levy for property taxes in December, the property tax abatement pledged by the district will be reflected for taxes owed after October.
Unit 5 did not wait for the results of the ballot question vote to explore bids for more vital repairs.
“We would not have been able to commit to the large projects for this summer that were badly needed,” said Hickman. “Especially the roofs at Normal Community and Chiddix.”
“Given how critical those two jobs were, we felt it was such a priority that we needed to have funding in place regardless.”
Weikle added that confidence is not high in that infrastructure if a major windstorm should occur.
