Fund Balances

Capital Improvement Projects

Annually the District engages in facility projects to maintain and improve the 1.2 million square feet of facilities in the district. The building and grounds leadership team consults with its department and with building administration to identify needed projects. This is done in conjunction with a master list of projects that identify material facility maintenance and improvement needs over a rolling 25 year horizon. The annual capital projects spend is between $2.5 and $3.0 million and is financed through a combination of debt and operating revenue. The District has historically issued approximately $2.3 million in short term (one-year) bonds to provide the bulk of the funding, with the remaining amount coming from operating funds. On its own this is not sufficient to fully maintain facilities, and the District has periodically used referendums to obtain authorization to issue larger amounts of long term debt to support facility improvements. Most recently, in 2020 voters approved a referendum to issue $147 million in bonds to make improvements across all schools. The projects associated with the referendum range from HVAC, plumbing, and electrical improvements to classroom additions, to safety and security upgrades. A summary of the projects and the associated timing is listed below. Bonds to support this work were issued in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and will be repaid over twenty years.

The Board of Education periodically discusses funding options for capital improvements. While the District has historically used short term debt to finance the majority of its annual capital projects, some board members have expressed a desire to stop that practice. If the board does not authorize short term debt, the District will need to either reduce its capital spending by approximately $2.3 million, or it will need to reduce other operating expenses by $2.3 million in order to fund the annual capital projects in its entirety through operating funds. It is expected that in the Fall 2022 the board will discuss a possible two year reauthorization of short term debt for capital projects or evaluate other options and the impact on facilities and operations.

Capital projects unrelated to referendum construction for 2022 and 2023 are as follows. These projects are typically started in late May or early June once schools are unoccupied, although some project mobilization and work may be completed earlier when possible. Projects are targeted for completion in early August prior to the return of students and staff to schools. In some cases the projects extend through September. Due to the planning process, some project expenditures will occur during fiscal year 2022, some during fiscal year 2023, and some may be split between both years.