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Smith-Green Community Schools advances preliminary $995,000 bond to fund gym repairs, buses and other projects
Summary
At a special meeting on Oct. 6, 2025, Smith-Green Community Schools approved a preliminary resolution to issue up to $995,000 in general-obligation bonds to pay for gym repairs, bus replacements and other capital needs; estimated project proceeds were about $870,000 and interest costs were estimated at $94,000. Vote tally was not recorded in the transcript.
At a special meeting Oct. 6, 2025, the Smith-Green Community Schools board approved a preliminary resolution authorizing the district to pursue a general-obligation bond issue of up to $995,000 to finance capital priorities including gym repairs and bus replacements.
The board heard a financing presentation from Megan Tilly, the district's municipal advisor from the firm identified in the record as Baker Philly. "The proposed bond you were discussing this evening would be for $995,000 — that fits well within that capacity," Tilly said, and estimated about $870,000 of project proceeds would be available after issuance costs.
Why it matters: the district's advisor said projected interest costs for the issue are roughly $94,000 based on rates the advisor received from the Indiana Bond Bank plus a one-percentage-point cushion. The advisor also warned that maintaining level payments if assessed values decline could require a slight levy increase to preserve the same debt-service tax rate.
In her presentation, Tilly summarized the district's outstanding debt and repayment schedule, noting annual payments around $1.5 million in 2025 with step-downs in coming years. She explained the statutory calculation used to estimate the district's general-obligation capacity and said the district's remaining GO principal of about $855,000 left capacity around $2.9 million under the calculation described in the meeting.
Tilly outlined how the proposed new bonds would be structured, saying the current plan builds in step-downs from 2028 to 2031 to provide flexibility and that the resolutions would permit a maximum repayment term of seven years though the advisor modeled a roughly five-year repayment. "If your assessed value drops," she said, "because we are keeping payments at that same level you would run the risk ... that your debt service tax rate could come up a little bit."
Board members discussed potential uses for the proceeds and construction cost estimates presented during the meeting indicated that some single projects could exceed the estimated proceeds: the junior-high-gym repair was cited at $945,000 and the elementary gym at $811,000. Tilly noted the $870,000 estimate for project proceeds would not cover both large gym projects in full.
A board member moved to approve the preliminary bond resolution and another board member seconded the motion. The meeting record documents the motion and second and shows the board discussed timing: the board will receive a final resolution at its October meeting and, if approved, staff would file the application for the Indiana Bond Bank meeting in November. The transcript does not include a roll-call tally or explicit ayes/nays for the preliminary resolution.
The district also reviewed its 2026 budget materials in the same session, including an advertised tax rate of 1.1197 and an estimated rate of about 0.9746, a bus-replacement schedule and a list of capital priorities. The presenter cited an education-fund estimate of 1,766,528 and the prior year's approved total as 1,669,448 in the meeting record.
Next steps: the board will receive a final bond resolution language at its October meeting; any final amortization schedule and pricing would be finalized in advance of the district's filing for the bond-bank meeting in November. The special meeting adjourned with no public comments recorded.
