Granite School District weighs lease revenue bonds and ‘lifeboat’ relocations to speed school rebuilds

Granite School District officials at a board study session reviewed options to accelerate a multi-year slate of school rebuilds and comprehensive remodels, weighing continued cash-based ‘‘pay-as-you-go’’ scheduling against several lease revenue bond scenarios and using closed-school ‘‘lifeboat’’ sites to relocate students during construction.

District staff described a set of early projects that could be affected under different financing assumptions, including West Kearns Elementary, an addition at Taylorsville High, and remodels at Calvin Smith, Plymouth and Moss elementaries. Todd Hubbard, a district staff member leading the financial presentation, said a lease revenue bond could move some remodels and rebuilds forward but carries legal limits and high interest costs.

Hubbard said the district is legally limited to issuing about $200,000,000 in lease revenue bonds every three years. "We only can bond up to $200,000,000 every 3 years," he said. He presented three bond scenarios for board consideration: a five-year issuance, a 10-year issuance, and a larger issuance up to the statutory limit. He said the five-year scenario would generate roughly $114,000,000 of financing and produce about $16,000,000 in interest, moving a few remodels forward but delaying several others; the 10-year option would yield more project advancement at higher interest (Hubbard cited roughly $30,000,000 in interest); the largest…