SPRINGDALE -- The School District has $128.86 million in debt up for refinancing.
The School Board gave Superintendent Jim Rollins authority Tuesday to test the market in the interest of lowering the interest rate on the debt.
Key dates in 2017-18 calendar for Springdale schools
• First day: Aug. 14
• Last day: May 23
• Days for making up bad weather: May 25-June 1
• Days off for students: Sept. 4 (Labor Day), Sept. 22 (teacher workday), Oct. 27 (teacher workday), Nov. 20-24 (Thanksgiving), Dec. 20-Jan.2 (Christmas), Jan. 15 (Martin Luther King Jr./Robert E. Lee holiday and optional teacher workday), Feb. 19 (teacher workday), March 19-23 (spring break), May 28 (Memorial Day, if school year is extended)
Source: Staff report
Going through the process will give the School Board information on what the interest rate will be for refinancing and the amount of savings they can expect, Rollins said. The board will have to vote on whether to go forward with refinancing the debt.
"It's important that we go through the process to get information to make the best decision," Rollins said.
The School Board also voted 5-0 to approve the calendar for the 2017-18 school year. The first day of the school year is set for Aug. 14, with the last day falling on May 23 if there are no bad weather days.
With current market trends, Scott Beardsley, a financial adviser to the district from First Security Beardsley Public Finance, anticipates an interest rate of 3.74 percent and an estimated savings of $8.7 million.
Refinancing the debt will not require a millage increase, nor will it extend the schedule for paying off the balance, Beardsley said. The debt still would be paid off in 24 years.
The debt up for refinancing was issued in June 2011 following a successful millage campaign, said Kelly Hayes, the district's comptroller.
Voters in May 2011 narrowly approved a 1.9-mill property tax increase. The increase allowed the district to restructure debt and issue bonds to build a $22 million middle school and a $32 million junior high school, according to a news report following the vote. The district expected to receive $16 million from the state for construction. The district has since opened Sonora Middle School and Lakeside Junior High School.
When the debt was sold, it was the largest Arkansas school bond issue, Hayes said. Springdale is one of four school districts statewide with a single bond issue of more than $100 million.
The consideration comes at a time when the School Board is studying when and how to expand the Don Tyson School of Innovation, Rollins said. The new campus opened this school year and has space for 1,000 students. The expansion would provide space for another 1,000 students.
Rollins said state officials have ranked the School of Innovation expansion as a top priority for money from the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation.
Officials with the Arkansas Department of Education have said the project would need slated for the first half of the state's next biennium, which begins July 1, Rollins said.
Rollins would have preferred to wait until the second year of the biennium to give the school another year of defining itself, but the available state money has sparked ongoing discussions about expanding sooner.
District officials also will consider whether to adjust the School of Innovation to accommodate sixth and seventh grades, in addition to the current plan of 1,000 eighth- through 12th-graders, Deputy Superintendent Jared Cleveland said. The campus now has about 500 students in eighth through 10th grade, with the final two grade levels set to be added over the next two school years.
School Board members have about a year to decide whether to go forward with an expansion or to wait, Cleveland said.
"You don't have to be panicked or rushed in any way," he said. "There's time to study."
NW News on 02/15/2017