Spokane, Sparta gain about $3.8 million in bonds.
By: Emily Hoffman, reporter
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Published:
Monday, June 14, 2010 12:07 AM CDT
Two Christian County school districts will benefit from the more than $146 million in interest-free bonds for school construction projects announced by Gov. Jay Nixon’s office May 28.
The Sparta R-3 and Spokane R-7 will receive almost $4 million in interest-free bonds, saving the districts a considerable amount of money over the 20-year life of the loans.
“These bonds were one of the main aspects we campaigned on during the election,” said Sparta Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jeff Hyatt. “It’s going to save the district around $1.1 million over the 20 years.”
Hyatt said the district was hoping for at least $1 million in bonds, so to receive $1,674,201 was more than they expected.
“This is almost double,” he said. “This is huge for the district. This means in years to come when we would be paying larger loan payments we will have more money to fill the needs in our schools.”
While the R-7 district got a larger piece of the pie, it was not as much as administrators would have liked.
“Right now our project is looking at a price tag of $5.6 million and we wanted to get as much of that as we could interest free,” said Brent Depeé, superintendent of schools. “We ended up with $2,127,215 and we would have liked more, but we will take what we can get.”
Depeé said the school will see about $700,000 in interest-free savings.
According to a release from the governor’s office, the Qualified School Construction Bonds were awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will go to 60 school districts around the state and help those districts pay financing costs connected with projects that are creating jobs and improving school facilities.
“Missouri school districts that have identified ways to fund projects and have gained the approval of taxpayers will benefit greatly from the Qualified School Construction Bond program,” Nixon said in the release. “Districts will be able to borrow more than $146 million, interest-free, to help them build. This demonstrates that timely, taxpayer-endorsed investment in critical capital needs is a smart move, particularly when incentives reduce costs.”
The bond program absorbs costs that would otherwise be incurred by school districts that have issued voter-approved bonds for construction projects, effectively allowing districts to borrow funds without paying interest, the release said.
Bondholders are provided with federal tax credits in lieu of the interest that would ordinarily be paid by the school districts which issues them. Through the program, bondholders receive full return on their investment while school districts are able to finance school construction projects less expensively, creating jobs in local communities.
While Spokane has yet to break ground on their $5.6 million over-the-road middle school expansion project, Depeé said the district is getting the ground work in place.
“We are doing all the leg work right now,” he said. “We are surveying the land and getting a general plan, but as of now we are still on track for an August 2012 completion date.”
Ahead of the game, the R-3 school district has already broken ground on their new high school facility and Hyatt said work began June 8.
“We secured a construction contract and we are anticipating an August 2011 completion date,” he said. “This is just huge for a district like us. It will allow us to have better buildings and its just a good thing for the kids.”
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