Freeport Area School District to borrow $3 million for high school fixes as it eyes much larger plan

The Freeport Area School Board is moving forward with senior high school renovations that will add $3 million to the district’s debt.

The board voted unanimously Thursday to launch a $3 million bond issue that will wrap around the district’s outstanding bond debt.

District Business Manager Brad Walker said the bond issue will add about $165,000 to the district’s current annual debt service payment. It will double the district’s current annual payment of $3 million, to $6 million.

Walker said the additional debt is equivalent to about a mill of taxes. But he said that doesn’t mean that district taxes will necessarily increase by that amount.

In addition to the bond proceeds, Magness and Walker said the district will use $563,000 in funds the district received from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan for pandemic recovery, which must be used by next year.

Contracts for the high school project total more than $2.4 million, plus there is an additional 20% for a contingency fund as well as fees for the bond counsel and underwriter.

The school board has scheduled a public meeting to gain district residents’ input on the project for Nov. 16 in the high school.

The project involves three components that the board and the administration say are badly needed and way overdue at the high school along South Pike Road (Route 356) in Buffalo Township.

About the project

Among the components are new boilers for the school, an upgrade to its electrical service and repairs to nine classrooms in the school’s science wing. Two of those items — the boilers and the electrical service — date to 1961 when the building first opened, according to Superintendent Ian Magness and District Business Manager Brad Walker.

Those upgrades were among the items listed by the administration when the board discussed a five-year, $66 million master plan in June. That plan has not yet been approved.

“We currently have two boilers in this building, and one is not working,” board president Adam Toncini said. “If the other boiler goes down, then we do not have heat in our building.”

He said the new boilers would not be installed in time for this winter, and district officials are hoping the current boiler will last that long.

“The electrical system is maxed out,” Toncin said. “We can’t add anything to it.”

The science wing was part of the last major school expansion in 1987. Magness said there is interior structural deterioration in the lintels — the beams above the windows in each classroom — that has to be repaired.

That came to the attention of district officials in recent months.

“We have no option but to do what we are doing,” school director Frank Prazenica said. “We are doing the right thing, but, unfortunately, it will cost us more money. The board is doing what it has to do.”

Walker said the board will not tap into the district’s capital improvement fund, which is currently $1.2 million, for this project.

When one resident asked about doing that, Toncini said if the district depletes that fund and an emergency repair is needed at another building the district will find itself in a jam.

Depending on how many contingencies the overall project runs into, the district may be able to take care of some additional capital improvement needs through the issue.

“We have a little cushion on borrowing but we can certainly use it (contingency fund) on other things,” Walker said.

Contracts awarded and the costs include:

• Graham Construction, science classroom repairs: $536,000;

• Fred L. Burns, general construction for boiler and electrical components: $232,000;

• East-West Manufacturing, HVAC construction for the boiler and electrical components: $831,000;

• Wright Electric, electrical construction for the boiler and electrical components: $738,000;

• Hunt Valley Environmental, asbestos removal related to boiler and electrical components: $89,700.

Jamie Doyle of PFM Financial Advisors, bond underwriter for the district, told the board Nov. 21 would be the earliest date to lock in bond interest rates. Completing the bond issue would take about 35 days after the rate is locked in.

However, Doyle said that she would prefer to wait until Jan. 1 to lock in a rate because the bond markets “get kind of messy” at the end of the year.