Unit 40 Board Discusses Bond Sale

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Published on January 25 2016 7:52 pm
Last Updated on January 25 2016 7:52 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

Effingham Unit 40 school board members Monday held a hearing on the potential sale of bonds.

The district is considering selling $670,000 in bonds that would allow an existing $670,000 in bonds to be paid off. Unit 40 Superintendent Mark Doan said the new bonds would have a lower interest rate than the existing bonds.

Unit 40 and other districts are looking at keeping their bonding up in case the State approves tax caps as has been proposed by the governor.

The district is looking at paying off bonds sold several years that were a refinancing of the original bonds issued to pay for the high school building and renovations to existing district buildings. Those bonds had a lower interest rate than the original bonds, and the new bonds would have a lower rate than those refinanced bonds.

A vote on whether to sell the new bonds is expected at the Board's February meeting.

Also Monday, member Laurie King Borelli reported on her trip to Effingham High School on behalf of the Unit 40 Foundation. She spoke to the English classes about the Foundation's new online scholarship applications. The online form is another effort to boost student interest in applying for the scholarships. The Board also approved the appointment of Kim Stanfield as a director on the Unit 40 Foundation Board.

There was also discussion about a meeting of the Wabash Valley Division of the Illinois Association of School Boards. The meeting will be held at Effingham High School on Tuesday, March 1, and hosted by Unit 40. The Board also acted on personnel matters. A resignation was accepted from Becky Parker as junior high Student Council Co-Sponsor, and leaves were approved for Kelly Anderson, Connie Vonderheide, Alyssa Nelson, Joanne Flowers, Kim Repking, Eric Brandenburg and Pat Clough.

Board members awarded a security system upgrade package to low bidder Security Alarm Corporation for $22,850. No details were shared on the upgrade, as that would defeat the purpose of the system. Doan also recognized the staff for their efforts to get students to school and to make the facilities ready on the day of the snowfall last week, and also thanked the teachers and administrators for their work to develop a locally-based curriculum in Math and English/Language Arts. 

The Board approved the 2016-17 school calendar. Casimir Pulaski Day will be a student attendance day. 

Board members also recognized the Effingham High School students who were honored earlier as Illinois State Scholars. There is an earlier story and photo about the honorees on the website.