The District 150 Board of Education met Monday night and voted unanimously to approve this agenda item:

10. REQUEST PUBLIC BUILDING COMMISSION OF PEORIA TO ISSUE BONDS FOR NEW LINCOLN SCHOOL – Cahill
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education approve and authorize the submission of a letter to the Public Building Commission of Peoria requesting a commitment to issue bonds for purposes of constructing a new primary school on the Lincoln School South site.

This is a departure from District 150’s original plan, which was to issue bonds for part of the building costs under their “Health-Life-Safety” (HLS) bonding authority. According to District Controller/Treasurer Guy Cahill, there are a number of reasons why they are now choosing to issue all the bonds through the Public Building Commission:

• “Inaction on the state level” — Under the School Construction Grant Program, HLS dollars can be matched by the state. However, the grant program has not been funded for three years now, and doesn’t look likely to be funded in the near future.
• “Greater flexibility in use” — Money from the PBC can be used for property acquisition; HLS money cannot.
• “Limited amount of time” — The state authorized District 150 to access PBC funding for only five years. They have until 2011 to use it or lose it.
• “Operation/maintenance dollars” — PBC funding can be used for ongoing maintenance of the buildings, including custodial/operational support.

Hear the school board’s deliberation of this item yourself:

[audio:http://www.peoriachronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/Audio/D150-BOE-07212008.mp3]

The school district still maintains that by limiting their borrowing to $85 million, they will not have to increase their property tax rate.

Also at the school board meeting Monday, Diane Vespa spoke to the board about the shortened Wednesday schedule the district is planning to institute this fall for primary schools. You can read a transcript of her comments on her blog.