Kettering school tax levy to finance Barnes demolition, other ‘pressing’ work

Annual payments for the package that includes the Barnes work are estimated to start at about $465,000 and rise to $738,000 when the 10-year agreement is completed, Furniss said.

“The first financing executed in 2016 is nearly paid back and I want to keep our debt payback out of the levy between” $2 million to $2.1 million a year, he said. “So, we are projecting smaller payments in the beginning of the term and once we retire a portion of the existing debt, we can increase the repayment.”

The district plans to issue Certificates of Participation (COPs) for the work, officials said. It is a way to fund more urgent projects while using future permanent improvement levy funds to repay them, board President Toby Henderson said.

“A way for us to address these most pressing projects is precisely through this COPs approach,” Henderson said. “So, what it allows us to do is obtain the financing needed in order to satisfy those projects.”

“Otherwise, we’d essentially be fixed in terms of the amount of money we would have available — as we are every year, frankly — to take care of some of these projects,” he added. “Or, what we’d have is think about going to the voters and talking about some additional taxes, which no one has an interest in doing.”

Since passed, among the projects the levy has funded include $12.15 million for the Career Technology Center at Fairmont…