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Evanston-Skokie D.65 to OK $15M in bonds for capital improvements
Updated: March 14, 2013 8:48AM
EVANSTON – The Board of Education is expected Monday to approve a $15 million bond issue to fund capital projects throughout Evanston-Skokie School District 65.
The bonds will refund $2.75 million in 2009 bonds, repay a $3 million loan from 2012, and fund summer 2013 capital improvements, according to a proposal presented to the Finance Committee March 11.
Of some $12.9 million in improvements this summer, $8.3 million is slated for Havens and Nichols middle schools where building addition and renovation work began last fall with the $3 million loan, Superintendent Hardy Murphy said in a written proposal.
According to a separate report from Mary Brown, chief financial officer for District 65, additional work includes:
• $1.5 million in technology equipment and services;
• $1.4 million in roofing and masonry work at Oakton School, Dawes School, Chute Middle School, and Nichols;
• $420,000 in asbestos abatement and flooring replacement at Haven, Chute and Bessie Rhodes Magnet School;
• $240,000 in additional security cameras, updated security systems, new door locks, buzzers and a proposal to secure entrances throughout various buildings;
• $150,000 for freezer and cooler units at Nichols and Chute;
• $120,000 for air conditioning at any remaining schools without it;
• $114,600 in site improvements to Haven and Kingsley School;
• $110,000 to fire-treat stage drapes at several schools and to replace stage drapes at Chute, Kingsley and King Lab Magnet School; and
• $98,366 in site improvements at Orrington School.
The 2009 bonds will be refunded “to issue current coupon bonds, which carry lower interest rates than capital appreciate bonds,” Murphy wrote in his proposal.
The short-term loan of $3 million last November was secured “so that the building addition and renovation work at Haven and Nichols could begin in a timely manner,” Murphy said.
No residents spoke during a public hearing on Feb. 25 to discuss granting the board authority to issue an additional $10 million in bonds, including some of the bonds expected to be issued Monday.
