Funding Process

Funding Process:

In the fall of 2024 the district worked with BakerTilly who is a financial advising company to school districts. They assisted the district in understanding the process of bonding dollars for Long Term Facility Maintenance IAQ projects. The Truman project was submitted to the Department of Education for approval. This submission can be found on the district website. In Minnesota there are a few areas that school boards have the authority to sell bonds without voter approval. Indoor Air Quality is one of the main areas. The other areas that would be available, the board chose not to use any authority to spend dollars on.In order to get the funding. The district also had to go through interviews for a “bond rating. This was brand new to the district and it all depends on the financial health of the district on what “grade” one will get with this rating. The great news with this is that with the fact that the district was almost closed by the legislature less than 5 years ago, the district attained an “A” rating. With this rating the bond sale produced and additional 1.1 million dollars in bond premium to be used for the project but NOT to be paid back as part of the outstanding indebtedness.  This was bonus for the district.   After the initial bonding was completed, The board was adamant that the project fit within the parameters of the money available.   Note:  The authority for the board to bond dollars does not mean that the dollars will be spent.  Any dollars that are bonded AND not used as part of the IAQ project are returned to the taxpayers unless otherwise voted upon by the taxpayers for other authority per Mn. statute.    The dollars mount is located on the levy yearly.  The anticipated levy impact dollar amount for this project yearly for the next 20 years is $1,080,000.00.