The Lincoln Junior High School building project is now entering the design and development phase. “That’s where they get into just a higher level of detail with respect to the building,” Plymouth School Superintendent Andy Hartley told the school board Tuesday, “and that will allow our construction management firm to work on estimates at a greater level of detail and that will eventually then lead to construction documents being put out for bid. So we’re still on schedule with the design piece. That design/development phase will conclude December or January, and there’ll be components of that being presented to you, probably, at the February meeting.”
The plan calls for the replacement of much of the Lincoln Junior High School building with a new facility, while the original 1926 structure will be renovated for other uses. To keep the project moving ahead, the school board passed another round of financing resolutions Tuesday.
That included a measure authorizing the corporation to sell part of the property to a legally-separate building corporation and then lease it back. Hartley explained that process is used by schools around the state to borrow money for renovation and construction projects. “This lease is the agreement whereby the school corporation will levy the required property tax to pay the lease payments,” he said. “The lease payments will be paid to the multischool building corporation and used to pay the bond holders. Without the lease, bond holders would have no assurance that the building corporation will repay the bonds.”
Since the money raised by transferring the property to the building corporation was not part of the school corporation’s budget, Hartley said an additional appropriation had to be approved. “The resolution also specifies that the funds will be placed in a school corporation construction account, separate from all other school corporation funds, until the project is complete.”
Because the building corporation will be the one actually holding the money to pay for the project, the school board also passed a resolution assigning the construction bids to it. “So the school corporation receives the bids and/or the contracts and awards the bids or contracts under state law, but then assigns those bids to the multischool building corporation,” Hartley explained.
A resolution was also passed authorizing the building corporation to issue bond anticipation notes to help cover some project-related costs before the bonds are actually issued. Another measure approved Tuesday formally authorizes the appropriate people to sign off on the documents related to the bond sale. No comments were offered during public hearings on the additional appropriation and the lease financing process.
