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 needed to fit within the parameters of the money available and shared many times that they would not be willing to bond any additional dollars. The reality is that the project did stay the same after the actual bids were in with the additional life safety measures added and a work from both sides.