Carson City School Board deals with $20M in projects

The Carson City School Board dealt with more than $20 million in capital projects during its meeting on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the board heard about its sale of a $15 million bond approved by voters that went better than expected and approved $6 million in financing for energy efficient projects throughout the district.

At its bond sale on Jan. 18, it was reported J.P. Morgan purchased the bond, providing for additional funds in bond premiums that in the end effectively raised the value of the bond to $16 million. The bond will be used for various construction projects throughout the district and district Director of Finances Andrew Feuling said there’s now an additional $1 million from the bond for projects for the board to consider.

The board also approved $6 million in energy efficient projects with the total cost not to exceed $7 million. Funding for the project will come from $5.235 million through energy efficiency financing known as an Installment Purchasing Agreement.

Just more than $614,000 will come from the $15 million bond to fund the projects and another nearly $300,000 will come from the general fund. But the projects are expected to be completed by November and when the projects are completed, it’s expected energy savings from the projects should make up for that nearly $300,000, so in effect no general funds are expected to be used for the projects.

Schools that will have projects done include Fremont, Mark Twain, Bordewich-Bray and Fritsch Elementary Schools and Carson Middle School. Among the major projects will be district-wide LED lighting, a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) wing at Carson Middle School and a new roof for the Carson Middle School gym.

It was reported the entire project will provide energy savings of 15.8 percent in a year and will reduce CO2 emissions in the district by 979 tons, the equivalent of removing more than 200 vehicles off the road.

In other business, Special Projects Coordinator Peggy Sweetland reported on the resources provided by the McKinney-Vento program, which provides services for students who don’t have stable housing. Sweetland reported there were 433 McKinney-Vento students, which represented 5.68 percent of the district.

Superintendent Richard Stokes also gave an overview of the State of the District report for 2015-2016. He reported the 2016 graduation rate for the district was 80.33 percent, considerably higher than the state average of 73.55 percent.

Stokes also reported the district’s administrative leadership accounts for 5.7 percent of the budget as opposed to the state average of 8.2 percent. He did report the district was adding a public information officer position and hoped to have the position filled soon.