On August 4, the Spring School District in Kansas expects to finalize the sale of $39 million worth of bonds approved by voters last June.
Proceeds from this bond sale will allow the district to make room for an increasing number of students by building a new elementary school as well as expanding Prairie Creek Elementary School and the Spring Hill Middle School campus. In addition, bond revenues will allow Spring Hill to improve educational technology and energy efficiency throughout the district, according to information posted on their website.
District enrollment has more than doubled over the past eight years, according to preliminary documents prepared by Gilmore & Bell, the law firm representing the district in the bond sale.
The only risk of this transaction cited in these documents was the fact that the district receives substantial funding from the state of Kansas.
“As with other states, declining State revenues have resulted in reductions in the amount of State aid to school districts for operating purposes,” the document says. “However, the District is obligated to levy unlimited ad valorem taxes to provide for debt service payments on the Bonds regardless of the amount of State aid received.”
Once this new bond sale is final, gross outstanding general obligation bonds for the district will total more than $85 million, which is almost $8,000 per taxpayer.
Spring Hill School District appealed to voters to approve the bond sale by promising no increase in the mill levy. Voters approved the sale June 7 by a margin of 342 votes. The Johnson County election office reported 3092 total votes on the issue.
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