The Cobb County School District is nearing the end of the first year of a new SPLOST collection period, and the school board on Thursday will be asked to consider taking out $100 million in short-term construction notes for the calendar year 2020.
The request is scheduled to be discussed at the board’s work session that begins at 4 p.m., and to formalize a resolution at its 7 p.m. business meeting. Both meetings will be held in board meeting room at the CCSD’s Central Office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.
(You can view the agendas for both meetings by clicking here.)
The loans are taken out as advances against SPLOST collections during the year, and have become an annual action by the Cobb school board.
The district borrowed $90 million for 2019 and a similar amount in 2018. The loans are repaid by the end of each year, as sales-tax revenues are collected.
This year, the loans were being paid back at an interest rate of 1.72 percent. District officials say the borrowing helps them issue bids and start projects earlier in the calendar year and to get savings against interest rates that are around 4-5 percent a year.
If the resolution is adopted Thursday night, a formal proposal with a details about the sale of the loans would be presented to the board for final approval in January.
The Cobb Ed-SPLOST V is expected to collect around $797 million in sales tax revenues through the end of 2023.
Among the primary projects on the SPLOST V list (here’s the full notebook) is rebuilding and relocating Eastvalley Elementary School to the former site of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road.
A timetable for that project has not been indicated by the district. Earlier this fall, Eastvalley parents demanded that the school board provide newer trailers to replace aging portable classrooms while a new school is built, but no action has been taken.
Among the other major projects at East Cobb schools in SPLOST V are planned for Lassiter HS (theater renovation), Sprayberry HS (CTAE building renovation), Walton HS (new tennis courts and softball field) and Wheeler HS (Magnet School renovation).
Dickerson and Dodgen middle schools also are slated for major classroom additions.
SPLOST funds also are used for technology upgrades at every school, including for security measures, and for general maintenance of facilities and equipment.
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