School Board approves refinancing 2009 bonds to save some $5.5 million

The Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education approved refinancing the 2009 School Building and Site bonds, passed by the voters to build a new school, to get a lower interest rate to save taxpayer dollars.
At Monday’s meeting, the school board voted unanimously to take advantage of the window opening available to refinance the bonds to get lower interest, as long as the interest rates come in lower, as expected.
The district currently levies 2.98 mills to pay back the 2009 bonds loan, which was $79,040,000.
Jesse Nelson and Karlee Sims of H.J. Umbaugh & Associates had reviewed the procedure at the board meeting of Oct. 22 and at the Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 8.
The district levies only the mills required to collect from taxpayers the outstanding bond payments for each fiscal year. Tax money collected for the repayment of bonds is held in a separate bank account and accounted for independent of the general fund.
The new bonds are not to exceed $63,365,000. The first payment will be $2,590,000 on Nov. 1, 2019 and the final payment will be $600,000 on May 1, 2039.
Nelson said there is estimated to be $7.8 million in total savings and with the plan to buy the bonds down by $2.3 million, leaves a net savings of $5.5 million.
He said the transaction would put $63 million in escrow to pay off the old bonds and estimated $61 million in new bonds.
“These are conservative numbers,” Nelson said. He said each year the new debt is calculated and the earliest taxpayers would see a reduction in payment would be the summer of 2019.
In other business at Monday’s 17-minute meeting, the board:
• Approved the cash sale of the 19.85 acres of vacant Denton Road property in Canton Township owned by the district to Anthony Costantino and Chris Costantino for $425,000. Closing is set for Nov. 20. Real Estate agent Paul Armstrong said the sale price is slightly less than the asking price of $450,000. Armstrong said the current zoning of the land is agricultural/residential and the buyers said the property will be used for farming, as it is now;
• Approved hiring Mahogany Tate as resource room teacher at Owen Intermediate and Tyler Elementary schools as of Nov. 5;
• Approved resignations of non-instruction staff members Angelique Witherspoon from McBride Middle School after less than a year of service as of Nov. 1 for personal reasons and Patrick Murphy of the IT Department after a year of service as of Nov. 19 for a job opportunity;
• Approved hiring Keith Schenavar as payroll coordinator at the Administration Building and Alice Dornier as a paraprofessional at McBride Middle School, both as of Oct. 29;
• Heard parent Angela Mears announce a blood drive is being held at Savage School on Monday, Nov. 19, and each person who calls to sign up in advance to give will earn a $10 donation to Savage from the Red Cross. Also, a fund raiser for student Devon Turner is set at Owen for Nov. 30. She also announced the McBride Robotic team came in 19th out of 36 in its first competition and fifth overall out of 36 teams in the second competition. The team got to the semifinals, but not the finals, she said;
• Heard Financial Director Shareen Barker say, “It is so nice to see the economy turning around.” She said in the 2015-16 school year, interest on the $7 million in the bank was just $4,675 for the whole year. Now, last month alone, there was $8,592.34 received in interest, for just one month, and there is less money deposited in the bank because they are investing more;
• Heard School Supt. Pete Kudlak say his face is fuzzy because he is observing “No-Shave November” for prostate cancer awareness. He said 3 million American men live with prostate cancer. He said two male teachers lost children to pediatric cancer and so the money raised by not shaving will be give to Mott Hospital, where both children were, for their program to help families; and
• Heard Trustee Kelly Owen announce that the Jingle Bell Run will be held Dec. 1 and the route will be changed to include running down Main Street. She said last year there were close to 500 runners. The run is put on by the Van Buren Education Foundation.