Fox C-6 school officials are considering placing a $48 million bond issue on the April ballot.
Superintendent Paul Fregeau said the district would likely use revenue from the bond issue to cover the cost of HVAC, roof and asphalt replacement projects, and possibly upgraded security measures, throughout the district.
He said the Fox district plans to hold a series of town hall meetings this month and in November to inform community members about the district’s needs and gather their opinions about the potential bond issue and projects that need to be addressed. As of Sept. 26, Fox C-6 had not announced times, dates and locations for the town hall meetings.
“We will have town hall meetings at several locations around the district to find out what our public would support,” Fregeau said during a Sept. 23 Board of Education meeting. “What is the most important thing with them? Is it the parking lots, safety, HVAC, roofs or something else?”
Fregeau said after the town hall meetings, district officials will discuss possible ballot language, and the board would likely vote in January whether to place the issue on the April 7 ballot.
The bond issue would not require a tax increase. However, if approved, the district’s bond debt would be extended by five years.
The district’s current overall tax levy is $4.1867 per $100 assessed valuation, with 39.01 cents of that used to pay the district’s current debts.
Chief operating officer Tracy Schmidt said Fox C-6 currently owes $47,024,963.40 for general obligation bonds and $6,225,000 for lease agreements. He said the current general obligation bonds are projected to be paid off in March 2041, and the lease agreements are expected to be paid off in March 2028.
Schmidt said if voters approve the sale of $48 million in bonds, Fox C-6 would have bond debt to pay off until 2046.
Fregeau said the district’s current debt service tax levy would provide enough funding to cover another $48 million in bond debt without asking voters to approve a tax increase.
“I don’t think it is a time to ask our public for additional taxes,” he said. “We are doing the max we can based on the space we have in our debt (service levy). Hopefully, in four or five years, we will have the same $48 or $50 million (in the debt service levy), but there are so many variables about assessed valuation of property tax.”
On Sept. 23, Fregeau said the Fox district has spent more than $4.1 million to replace HVAC units, more than $1.8 million to replace roofs and more than $3.1 million on asphalt projects over the last three years. He said those projects were paid for out of Fox C-6’s capital improvement fund.
He also said Fox C-6 has more than $130 million worth of HVAC, roof and asphalt replacement projects that still need to be addressed. He said the district has 30 acres of roofs and 337 HVAC units to maintain, and Kevin Piel, director of maintenance has said Fox C-6 has a total of 2,962,432 square feet of asphalt at its buildings, which includes the Don Earl Early Childhood Center, 11 elementary schools, four middle schools and two high schools.
Fregeau said the roof replacement is at the top of the list of projects the district needs to address.
“If your roofs are leaking, that impacts the entire learning environment,” he said. “We can make adjustments for the HVAC, but if the roofs are leaking, that impacts everybody. Now, I don’t know how the public will feel about that.”
Last year, the Fox district completed all the projects that were funded with revenue from a $40 million bond issue, called Proposition P, which voters approved in June 2020. Prop P was the largest bond issue passed in the district’s history.
The district used the Prop P funds to build additions at Fox High, Seckman Middle and Antonia and Meramec Heights elementary schools; to build new playgrounds at most of its elementary schools; and to enhance security for most of the school’s entrances.
According to board documents, the district used a combination of money from the Prop P bond issue, interest earnings, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief II (ESSER II) funds received from the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a bond premium to pay for those projects.
Chrissy Rufkahr, executive director of finance, said the final cost for projects primarily funded by Prop P was $46,054,116.89, which was $189,220.10 less than what the district had budgeted to complete the projects.
Fregeau said he hopes the information Fox C-6 provided throughout the Prop P projects will encourage voters to approve another bond issue.
“We gave monthly reports on the progress and the budget,” he said. “Hopefully, people will understand that we operate transparently and provide information. I am hoping that helped with the perception of our use of the funds.”
Board members voted 6-0 on Sept. 23 to pay $4,500 to Navigate Building Solutions, a project and construction management firm in Brentwood, to help gather information from the community about the potential bond issue. Board President April Moeckel was absent from the meeting.
The district previously hired Navigate to oversee Prop P projects after the district had started selling bonds and started construction on some of the bond-funded improvements.
Fregeau said the district will benefit from having Navigate on board for the potential bond issue from the start.
“They handle the management and schedule bond issuance, so the bonds are issued at the right time to allow for no arbitrage to be assessed,” he said of Navigate. “Arbitrage is a tax paid if you get too much interest by the bonds sitting in the bank. It is basically a tax you pay to the federal government on too high of a fund balance.
“We want to put as much of our resources as we can toward the buildings and not to pay a tax.”