USD 408 buys 35 computers, refinances bonds years ago
The Board of Education of USD 408, at a special meeting at noon Tuesday, approved purchase of 35 new computers at $590 each. Thirty of the machines will go to Marion Elementary School classrooms, the other five elsewhere.
"We are collaborating with Hillsboro (school district) to get the best bid," said USD 408 Superintendent Gerald Henderson.
The money to pay for the computers will come from LOB (local option budget) funds, Martin Tice, district business manager and board clerk, said.
The district had planned to buy kits, at $200 per machine, to upgrade 25 computers at MES. Henderson thought it unwise to spend that much to patch old machines, when new ones cost less than $600 each.
Answering a board member's query, Henderson said that, yes, he felt students in Marion grades 4-6 were "getting the bang for our buck" from computers in the classroom.
Gene Bowers, board vice president, said that art education is very important for the development of the brainstem, for creative and analytical thinking.
He said some schools have eliminated computers for grades K-6 with no ill effects seen yet.
The proposal to buy the 35 machines passed, 4-3, with Keith Collett, Bowers, and Doug Sharp voting against it.
The board agreed to re-finance $1.375 million in bonds issued in 1997, if its bond/finance adviser can "get them a deal" that saves the district at least $40,000.
Stephen E. Shogren, the adviser, senior vice president for public finance at George K. Baum & Company, Wichita, said he can get such a deal, or will not do the re-funding if he cannot.
"Interest rates are way down now, the lowest they've been in 45 years," he said. He advised the board to lock in a savings.
Re-fundings are relatively technical, Shogren said. His company has done them for Louisburg, Andover, Lincoln, Goddard, Solomon, and many other Kansas districts, he said.
He can get an interest rate now of about 1.93 percent, he said. This can save USD 408 about $35,000 on its 2003-04 budget. The total savings over a four-year period will be at least $40,000, maybe as much as $45,000.
"Interest rates change every day," he said.
This will amount to about a 3 percent savings on the bond issue amount. Baum does not recommend re-financing debt unless there is a saving of at least 2 percent, he said.
Since the state provides about 40 percent of school funding, 60 percent of this money saved will be a savings to local taxpayers — around $24,000 to $25,000.
Tice said, "You can only do it (re-finance) one time per bond issue, though."
He will research the market, Shogren said. If he cannot find a savings of at least $40,000, it will be "no deal." To do otherwise would be embarrassing, he said, for him, for his company and for USD 408.
He did not, he said several times Tuesday, want a "blank check" from the board.
He also offered to lower his firm's fee from 1.2 to 1 percent, saving the district approximately another $3,000.
