The Salem R-80 Board of Education met July 21 for its regular meeting and discussed planning for a future bond or lease debt regarding construction in the district with Martin Ghafoori, a representative from Stifel, an investment banking company that the board voted recently to work with.
Ghafoori explained the two basic options that the school has:
A general obligation bond would be supported by an ad valorem (assessed valuation of property) tax, requires voter approval of either 4/7 or 2/3 depending on the bond election date, requires a higher credit rating, has a lower interest rate, the debt limit is based on a percentage of assessed valuation and it has a maximum maturity of 20 years.
Lease debt on the other hand does not require voter approval if it can be paid for from the current operating levy or revenues of the proposed project—if it does require a vote it only requires a simple majority. Lease debt can also be done with a lower credit rating, has no debt limit and the maximum maturity can be spread across 30 years or more.
Ghafoori shared a packet with the board that showcased a variety of different bonding and lease debt options and scenarios based upon how the board might decide to move forward.
If the board wants to have something on the April ballot, the deadline for ballot language is Jan. 24. Ghafoori told the board that he believed discussion of those details in December would be in plenty of time. Ghafoori also said that a town hall meeting to educate the public would make sense in March, leading up to the vote.
• Superintendent Dr. Lynne Reed, updated the board on the progress of the ESP project.
“Right now, our biggest issue is—the supply chain is not our friend,” she said. Reed explained that preliminary pieces of the tin gym project will arrive in August and get started in September. The locker room project will begin after football season, according to Reed.
Reed also told the board that HVAC units have arrived and will be installed in the coming weeks.
• Dr. Nathan Wills discussed the progress of the CSIP plan. Wills and Reed plan to meet further with school principals.
• Wills told the board that he and head of security Tracy Strange met with the Salem Police Department and plan to run thorough various scenarios in an effort to acquaint officers with the school campus—Wills also said that the police plan to do more walkthroughs on campus in the future.
• Wills provided information regarding changes related to Tiger Training to make the orientation more building specific.
• The board voted 5-0 to remove the sick leave pool from school policy. The board then voted 5-0 to change sick and personal days to only personal days and increase the payout for unused days to match substitute teacher pay. Board members Steven Patterson, Andrew Wynn, Chris Heavin, Sammi Parker and Phillip Mercer were present; Amanda Walker and Holly Erway were absent.
Also during the meeting, the board approved the following 5-0:
• the RFP for the baseball field,
• the instructional coach job description,
• Safe return to in-person Instruction and Continuity of Services plan,
• the surplus list from upper elementary,
• the handbook as presented,
• the corrected support staff salary schedule,
• to set the tax rate hearing for Aug. 18 5:45 p.m.,
The board went into closed session at 7:10 p.m.
During closed session, the board approved the following 5-0:
• to accept the resignation of Julie Harris as William Lynch librarian,
• to hire Becca Hays as the assistant girls basketball coach,
• to transfer Jordan McLaurin to assistant boys basketball coach.
Also in closed session, the board voted 4-0 (Heavin abstained) to set the administrator salary schedule based on the number of years as an administrator
The meeting adjourned at 8:32 p.m.
