Surplus money the Aiken County Public School District receives from issued bonds could be used to fund $4 million in improvements at high school athletic facilities.
The improvements would include artificial turf at North Augusta High School and Aiken High, the track and lighting at Silver Bluff High and restrooms at South Aiken High and Midland Valley High.
The district receives the money, known as a bond premium, from the $17.5 million in bonds it issues to finance its Five-Year Facility Improvement Plan each year because of its high credit rating and low interest rates. The district is not guaranteed a bond premium every year, but it has averaged about $1.5 million annually over the past four years.
The plan, which School Board member Keith Liner proposed at the Board's meeting Tuesday and later withdrew after members said they needed more time to consider it, calls for the district to borrow money from its reserve fund, or savings account, to get the projects started.
Money from the bond premium will be used to pay back the loan to the fund over 18 months, as is required by law, when it becomes available.
"That's why I think this fund is so attractive," said Liner, who is on the subcommittee the Board formed March 10 to determine the top needs for athletic facilities at the district's seven high school as identified by their athletic directors and ways to pay for them.
Liner said he believes the district might be able to use the bond premium to pay for the projects without borrowing from the reserve fund because not all of them are ready to begin.
"I'm going to put together a time line that shows the projects with the funding and when it will be needed, and I think we'll see that we probably won't have to borrow any money from the fund balance," Liner said. "If we put those projects that are not shovel-ready second, the shovel-ready ones first, I think we wouldn't have to borrow any money. We could use the money from the bond premium funding stream."
If the School Board approves the plan and the district does need to borrow the money to pay for the projects from the reserve fund, the only cost to the district would be a reduction in interest the account earns, said School Board member Richard Hazen, the chairman of the athletic facilities needs subcommittee.
"We would just be borrowing from the reserve fund for the short term," Hazen said. "The cost to the district is we lose interest off the money for whatever time frame that there is a loan. It's minimal, probably less than $25,000 in costs, real money costs. The plan makes sense."
Currently, the district saves the $200,000 budgeted annually for athletic facilities in the Five-Year Facility Improvement Plan for several years when it needs to pay for a big-ticket item that some view as a pressing need, such as artificial turf to replace the grass field at North Augusta High's football stadium. North Augusta requested the turf because, with limited space to prepare for games, the school's football teams, soccer team and band use the field for practice and play, and it deteriorates quickly.
Board members voted 5-4 against the request, saying needs at all schools needed to be considered and then formed the athletic facilities needs subcommittee.
The subcommittee will meet again Tuesday.
Several board members expressed concerns that they were unable to attend the first meeting Monday to provide input.
The full board will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday and could take action on any proposals that might come out of the subcommittee meeting.
A native of Aiken, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter.