Brainerd School District: 'Very good results' for bond sale, adviser says

It was a good day to sell bonds for Brainerd public schools.

The Brainerd School Board Monday, June 11, ratified the sale of its general obligation school building bonds to finance the school district's comprehensive facilities plan to a bank in New York. Ratifying the sale of bonds was the next step for the district after voters approved a $147.5 million bonding referendum this past April. The bonds were sold to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York for $149,559,727.06 at an interest rate of 3.61 percent.

Greg Crowe, a municipal adviser with Ehlers Inc., the municipal financial firm the district contracted to sell the bonds, said seven big investment companies submitted a bid to purchase the bonds and the interest rates ranged from 3.61 to 3.73 percent. Crowe said the difference in the interest rates from the highest bid to the lowest was $3.6 million, money the district saves.

"These are very good results," Crowe said. "You did a great job picking the date on when to sell the bonds. This is a win-win for everyone, the school and the taxpayers."

Last month, Crowe told the board he estimated the interest rate could be 3.9 percent and go as high as 4 percent. Crowe advised the board then to sell its bonds as soon as possible, while there's a viable projection of interest rates enabling the district to stay within the fiscal boundaries voters approved during the 2018 referendum vote.

The sale of the bonds took place May 30.

Subsequent to the bid opening, Ehlers decreased the issue size to $143,110,000 versus the $147.5 million stipulated in the "voter-approved portion" of the referendum.

"The low bidder paid premium price for the bonds," Crowe said in a phone interview. "That means they paid more than the district was selling the bonds for. The district cannot receive more than the voters authorized, so the premium is used to finance the project cost, and the bond amount is reduced."

In other school business, the board:

Certified the contracts for the clerical staff and interpreters in the school district. The board approved a one-year clerical contract for 2017-18, which involves up to 50 employees, with a three-year agreement to follow. The agreement includes an average of a 2.75 percent increase in salary over the four years. In the interpreters contract, there is a 50-cent increase in salary and the contract involves less than 10 people. The contract is the same as the clerical contract-a one-year contract for 2017-18, with a three-year agreement to follow.

Congratulated the following students and their accomplishments:

• For the students and community for raising more than $30,000 for the Lighthouse Project.

• To the 2018-19 Brainerd High School Student Council Executive Board: Kelsey Miller as president, Ellie Peabody as vice president, Mackenzie Shaw as secretary, Chase Christian as press secretary, Nick Schneider as treasurer and Devin Emslander as parliamentarian.

• Elks USA Americanism essay contest winners:

Division 1 (fifth and sixth grade)-Lillian Kopek, first place Lodge winner, district winner to compete at state level; Peyton Freeman, second place Lodge winner; Eli Karlgaard, third place Lodge winner, district winner to compete at state level;

Division 1 (seventh and eighth grade)-Mason Fratzke, first place Lodge winner, district winner to compete at state level; Gracelyn Dickinson, second place Lodge winner, district winner to compete at state level; Ella Chaussee, third place Lodge winner, district winner to compete at state level.

Hired Jennifer Johnson as the director of the Paul Bunyan Education Cooperative, effective July 1.

Hired Jennifer Fundine and Ellie Nelson as special education teachers at BHS; Trent Grams as a fourth-grade teacher at Garfield Elementary School; and Michelle Tollefson as a special education teacher at Riverside Elementary School.

Accepted several donations to the district that include money for summer reading books, archery program, book replacements, student activities, robotics program and for gymnastics coaching services.

Approved the Baxter Parks and Recreation revenue and expense summary, which showed a $528 deficit for the 2018-19 school year. The summary showed the district had a $7,582.40 deficit at the end of the 2016-17 school year.

Approved a contract with CliftonLarsonAllen to conduct the district's audit for the year ending June 30, 2018. The contract states the preliminary estimates for the audit fee will be $38,100.

Renewed insurance policies for property and general liability, workers' compensation and cyber liability insurance with Weizenegger & Engel Insurance. According to a report presented by Marci Lord, the director of business services, the school district's property, general, auto and umbrella liability claims on average have been about $25,000 per year with higher than average claims in 2007-08, 2010-11 and 2016-17. The 2018-19 proposed premium is a 1.3 percent increase from the prior year. The school district's reduction in work-related injuries and workers' compensation losses continue to positively affect the risk classification, which has resulted in stabilized premiums, Lord stated.

Approved the Northern Pines Mental Health Center contract agreements for 2018-19.

Approved the following field trips: April 25-26, 2019, Audubon Center of Northwoods in Sandstone; May 9-10, 2019, Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs Stars spring competition, Bloomington; Oct. 2-3, 2019, Nobel conference, St. Peter.

Renewed the district's annual Minnesota State High School League's membership.

Approved the lead in water management plan. The district has already been testing its water for lead for decades, but new state statutes requires every public school buildings serving kindergarten through 12th grade to test for lead in water in all potable water sources every five years.

Approved the Q-Comp, or Quality Compensation, annual report from 2017-18. The A-Comp program, which is what Brainerd calls its Q-Comp program, has five components: professional development/trainings; job-embedded professional development; teacher appraisal/peer coaching; site level achievement goals/pay for performance; and salary enhancement through serving in a leadership role and/or participation. Recommendations in the presentation included continuing education for all teachers on the A-Comp program; fine-tune scheduling of weekly and bi-weekly Professional Learning Community meetings; and continuing to train in the area of common assessments.