ALEXANDRIA – Officials with Alexandria Community Schools during a preliminary determination hearing on Monday announced hopes taxpayers will approve a $19.3 million facilities bond payable over 19 years.
According to district projections, the estimated tax rate would be about 50 cents per $100 of assessed property value. According to district figures, a property with a value of $90,400 would have an assessed value of $26,500, which would put the cost at about $11.05 per month.
“As we’ve gone through these meetings, our options have evolved a little bit, based on what happened at the meetings,” said Alexandria superintendent Melissa Brisco.
Alexandria schools is the second district in Madison County to plan a May 8 bond referendum. Anderson Community School Corp. announced its plan earlier this year for $41 million facilities and $1.8 million operations bond referenda.
Alexandria plans a statutorily required 1028 public hearing at 7 p.m. Jan. 8, and Anderson plans a 1028 meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 9. The 1028 meeting is part of a timeline required by the state for districts seeking bond referenda.
The plan was part of nearly a year of planning, including a demographic study, a facilities audit and seven focus groups with about 100 residents and staff. Options ranged from doing nothing to a plan costing $25 million.
Brisco said the facilities bond is necessary because of the state’s property tax caps, which prevents school districts from collecting more than 1 percent of assessed value. She said the district has lost more than $1 million because of the property tax caps, causing overspending to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars out of the general fund, she said.
That has caused the general fund cash balance trend to decrease from $4.5 million in 2011 to a little more than $3 million in 2016, according to district charts.
“We’ve had a solid cash balance in our general fund, but we can’t maintain this kind of spending,” she said. “Our general fund is propping up our capital projects just to do the things to keep our schools running. These aren’t enhancements.”
For instance, in 2013, Alexandria schools spent $73,000 from the general fund on capital improvements, according to district charts. By the end of 2016, that had burgeoned to $213,000.
Belvia B. Gray, a certified independent public municipal bond adviser and principal with Indianapolis-based Umbaugh, said the district has very little debt for a school corporation and is in a very good position to take on more.
“Right now, the school only has common school loan funds outstanding,” she said. “Then characteristics of the school’s debt structure are really desirable.”
Gray said the greatest impact of the bond would be on agricultural land and commercial properties. Landowners would pay about 77 cents per acre, and $41.67 monthly for a commercial property owner whose facility has an assessed value of $100,000.
Alexandria Community Schools board member Diana Sayre was the first to demonstrate public support for the plan.
“I don’t care what we offer. We’ve got to fix these buildings,” she said.
A real estate agent, Sayre said she often fields requests from prospective homeowners and renters who want to see properties in Frankton rather than Alexandria.
“They have new brick and mortar, and their perception is that it is a better place to be,” she said.
Tiffany Clegg, owner of The Curve in Alexandria, attended the meeting with several other members of a political action committee assembled by the district.
Clegg said she supported the effort because the city paid for it 15 years ago when a referendum failed.
“Families left because of it,” she said.
Unlike the last time, however, there appears to be little opposition to a bond referendum.
“We are struggling to find the opposition for this,” she said. “The one thing we thought we would have is so much opposition, but we haven’t seen it.”