The work includes abatement and tearing down the former high school and junior high on Far Hills Avenue next year, work estimated to cost $2.1 million, district officials said.
This is the fourth time permanent improvement levy money has been used to finance facility improvements in this manner, Kettering Treasurer Cary Furniss said in an email. The levy generates about $4.2 million a year and more than $29.6 million has been leveraged in previous financings, he said.
The debt repayment is estimated at $2.31 million a year, including the new issue, Furniss said. About $1.9 million annually remains for other projects, he added.
Annual payments for the package that includes the Barnes work are estimated to start at about $465,000 and rise to $738,000 when the 10-year agreement is completed, Furniss said.
“The first financing executed in 2016 is nearly paid back and I want to keep our debt payback out of the levy between” $2 million to $2.1 million a year, he said. “So, we are projecting smaller payments in the beginning of the term and once we retire a portion of the existing debt, we can increase the repayment.”
The district plans to issue Certificates of Participation (COPs) for the work, officials said. It is a way to fund more urgent projects while using future permanent improvement levy funds to repay them, board President Toby Henderson said.
“A way for us to address these most pressing projects is precisely through this COPs approach,” Henderson said. “So, what it allows us to do is obtain the financing needed in order to satisfy those projects.”
“Otherwise, we’d essentially be fixed in terms of the amount of money we would have available — as we are every year, frankly — to take care of some of these projects,” he added. “Or, what we’d have is think about going to the voters and talking about some additional taxes, which no one has an interest in doing.”
Since passed, among the projects the levy has funded include $12.15 million for the Career Technology Center at Fairmont High School, $11.58 million in auditorium work, $3.72 million in technology upgrades, $3.1 million for textbooks and $2.22 million for school buses, district records show.
Aside from the Barnes work, the plan approved this month includes $1.1 million in transportation upgrades, and infrastructure work at Kettering Middle School, Fairmont High School, Beavertown Elementary School and district-wide HVAC work. All those projects have estimated costs at — or exceeding — $500,000, according to district documents.
Financing Requests for Proposal sent out earlier are due Monday, according to the district.
School spending
Since Kettering City School District voters approved a 2016 permanent improvement levy, it has funded more than 20 capital improvement projects. The five areas where most of the money has been spent are:
• Fairmont High School career tech labs, $12.15 million
• Auditorium, $11.58 million
• Technology, $3.72 million
• Textbooks, $3.1 million
• School buses, $2.2 million
2016 levy plan
In a 2016 mailer to residents, the school district listed a number of areas that would be affected if voters approved the levy:
• Facility/operations work: Security, roofing, parking lots, HVAC systems, new buses, bleachers;
• Classroom support: Textbooks, educational technology, musical instruments, school furniture;
• Student programming: Barnes building repair or replacement space, funding for all-day kindergarten and preschool expansion, expanding career tech space and offerings, auditorium improvements;
• Athletic facility improvements: Turf replacements for football and soccer, irrigation for baseball field, plus multiple bleacher replacements.
SOURCE: Kettering City Schools
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