With orders for $19 million from the public, the Board of Education signed the resolutions for their bonds Thursday, August 13.

The BOE actually sold about $9.16 million in bonds which they are set to pay back through there ESPLOST funds they collect. According to Gabe Agan, of Raymond James & Associates, Inc., the bonds were locked in at 1.24% bond yield.

While the Board was assured this conservative plan was built to ensure these bonds could be paid off with ESPLOST funds, if for some reason this is insufficient to pay off the bonds, the Board will reach into the General Fund to pay off the bonds.

The three resolutions that were signed involved the Bond Resolution which bascially approved the bonds sales. The second was the Intercept Resolution which allows the state to intercept money headed for the BOE from the State Department of Education to pay of the bonds should they be unpaid by ESPLOST and the general fund, this also provides a better credit rating for the school system to sell the bonds. The Board already holds an A+ rating, but this resolution bumps them into and AA+ category.

The final resolution involves the possibility of having the Board of Commissioners levy a tax in order to help pay off the bonds. This would only ever happen if the ESPLOST failed to pay and the BOE could not pay from the General Fund. However, the Intercept Resolution is also the alternative to this.

With the motion from Jim Parmer, and the second from James Waters, the Board voted in the approval of the Bonds. These will be set to close in 2 weeks, at which point the funds will be available for the BOE to begin using on their construction projects.

Also approved in the meeting were the policies DJEAC, GAD, JCDAE, JCDAG, JGCD, JGI, JGJA and the financial report. The Board also approved the application to the Department of Education for a reimbursement funding for the Agriculture Facility they are set to plan.  Check these out at our previous article here.