Guthrie BOE gives the go ahead to prepare school bond election for May 12

In a special Guthrie Public Schools Board of Education meeting, board members agreed to begin preparing for a May 12 school bond election. Highlighting the bond election will be addressing major building repairs and construction of a new elementary school in southern Logan County.

Following a 75 minute meeting, Superintendent Dr. Mike Simpson was granted approval from the board to set a May 12 bond election through the Logan County Election Board.

Guthrie News Page has the complete video coverage of the board meeting below this story.

The school system will look to seek a super-majority (60 percent) approval from voters for a Series Bond Issue which is bonds that are voted in an amount that exceeds bonding capacity and issued in a series as bonding capacity becomes available.

Simpson asked the district’s Financial Advisor Jon Wolff to prepare a schedule that involved a series bond with approximately 15 mills to begin addressing the district’s most critical items – roofs and the exterior portions of aging school buildings – for the first phase. The second phase would construct a nearly 50,000 square foot elementary school suited for approximately 500 students. The third phase would address other critical needs, including exterior work on the junior high, heating and air units at the high school and technology for the district.

The complete project is estimated at $16.2 million.

“The needs have not changed,” Simpson said referring to the list of items from the last failed proposal in November.

“They are still there.”

The first bond sale would be issued on Aug. 1, 2015 for $2 million with a 2-year term and an estimated average interest of 1.1 percent. The ad valorem tax mill levy is projected at 15.67. The projects, include exterior upgrades (roof, window replacement, tuck point repair and heat and air unit) for Central Elementary ($682,323), a new roof for Fogarty Elementary ($360,043) and Guthrie Upper Elementary School ($944,856).

The second bond sale would be issued on Aug. 1, 2016 for $11.4 million with a 10-year term and an estimated average interest of 2.886 percent. The ad valorem tax mill levy is projected to decrease to 13.98. The project would construct, furnish and equip a new elementary school, with safe rooms, in southern Logan County. The school district is expected close on the prosed land, located at Douglass Blvd. and Charter Oak, sometime next month.

The third bond sale would be issued on Aug. 1, 2017 for $2.7 million with a 7-year term and an estimated average interest of 3.196 percent. The ad valorem tax mill levy is projected to be at 15.39. The project would sit aside $750,00 toward the junior high for waterproofing and windows, $1,326,500 for a long-term fix for the heating and air units for the high school and $500,000 for district-wide technology.

Simpson told board members other needed repairs need to be addressed, but those items could be funded with the school’s building fund.