Tell the School Board Your Opinion on Bond Structure
What bond payment plan should the School Board approve? Residents have another opportunity to provide input on Wednesday, January 22 at the 7 pm School Board meeting in City Hall.
At the January 8, 2014 School Board meeting, lengthy consideration was given to how the bond proposal scheduled for the June 2014 ballot will be structured. It is intended to raise $13.5 million for renovating and enlarging the high school auditorium known as the Allen Harvey Theater. School Board determination of bond terms is on the January 22 Board meeting agenda.
Some community comments reflect concern that the School District has already overly obligated Piedmont property owners with bonds to pay for recent Seismic Safety improvements, including the Havens Elementary School rebuild, and the sports facility at Witter Field. Piedmont teeters on the edge of the amount of money Piedmont can borrow under State laws.
In contrast to concern for additional property owner debt obligations, others place a priority on creating a state of the art theater to serve not only the School District, but the community as well. Calls for more modest upgrades rather than the extensive renovation have been met with vocal support for the proposed $13.5 million plan.
Whether to pay less to borrow the money now or delay payment at greater cost is faced by the School Board, whose members want the proposed bonds to be approved by voters in June. Theater plans were previously approved by the Board, making the plans and money to be borrowed no longer at issue.
The School District has provided the following information on the ballot measure to approve the $13.5 million school bonds, which will have a final cost between $15.5 million to $19.5 million, depending on interest rates and term of the bonds:
http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/aboutpusd/agenda.minutes/2012_13/012214_packet.pdf Scroll down to page 29 to see how prior monies have been spent.
Agenda for Jan. 22 meeting.
Members of the School Board are:
Richard (Rick) Raushenbush – President –rraushenbush@piedmont.k12.ca.us
Andrea Swenson –Vice President –aswenson@piedmont.k12.ca.us
Ray Gadbois – rgadbois@piedmont.k12.ca.us
Sarah Pearson – spearson@piedmont.k12.ca.us
Roy Tolles (E. Leroy) – rtolles@piedmont.k12.ca.us
