Feb 17, 2015 3 min read

JEFFERSON – Jefferson-Morgan School Board authorized the administration Tuesday to move forward with plans to issue bonds to pay for proposed renovations to the middle-senior high school.

The board approved a resolution authorizing the administration to work with the district’s financial adviser, bond counsel and board solicitor, Ernie DeHaas, to prepare the bond issue.

The district tentatively expects to raise about $5.2 million from the bond issue for a project that will include the replacement of sections of the roof not replaced last year and upgrades to the electrical, plumbing and heating and air conditioning systems.

The district last year earmarked 1.07 mills toward the renovation project. The motion approved Tuesday indicated an additional 0.55 of a mill will be needed to fund the annual debt payments for the project.

The board considered a school improvement project based on what it believed the district could afford to spend each year on bond payments.

It then worked with its financial adviser to determine how much money it could raise through a bond issue based on what it decided to set aside each year for payments and set a scope of work in line with the money that would be available.

Cindy Jento, chairman of the board finance committee, said her committee was given some good news at a recent committee meeting by the bond counsel, who had said interest rates being paid on bonds had recently declined.

This should allow the district to receive a little more money for the project than originally planned, she said. Jento later said the estimated annual bond payments will average about $450,000 a year for 30 years.

In other business, Steven Cypher of the accounting firm Cypher and Cypher presented the district’s audit for the year ending June 30, 2014.

Cypher reported the audit revealed neither any deficiencies nor instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations.

The district ended the year with a fund balance of $2,096,790, an increase of $206,279 compared to the previous year. Of the total fund balance, $898,031 was listed as “unassigned” and available for the district’s use.

The district’s fund balance is about 7 percent of its budget. Cypher said that was a good-sized fund balance, though he recommended because of the district’s small size, the district increase that to the state’s maximum of 10 or 12 percent.

Charles Rupert, also of Cypher and Cypher, reviewed some of the issues that will face the district in the coming years with increased costs for salaries, health benefits and retirement costs.

Superintendent Donna Furnier reported the district partnered with Community Action Southwest on a grant that will provide a person to work in the district with the families of district students.

The person could help families whose members are underemployed and who may need help with interviewing skills or even with assistance with income tax form preparation, she said.

The idea is to help the district partner with the families of district students so they can better support their children in school, she said.

Furnier also reported a Dancing for D.J. fund raiser, a project of Gavin Koratich, president of the National Honor Society, had raised $6,000 for the American Lung Association.

It also was reported Jefferson Township has agreed to purchase new flashing school zone lights for the district and will install them in the spring and that board member Bob Mitchell will be on the ballot for the Intermediate Unit 1 board at the I.U.’s annual conference on March 24.