Ascension Parish, La., Schools Sets $100M Vote for Construction

DALLAS - Voters in Ascension Parish, La., will go to the polls Oct. 17 to decide on a $100 million general obligation bond package to finance a program of public school construction and renewal.

Trustees of the Parish-Wide School District of Ascension Parish voted unanimously Tuesday night to ask voters to extend an existing property tax rate to support the debt.

School enrollment in the parish, which is located between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, has grown significantly over the past five years, but superintendent Donald Songy said the bond program focuses on renewing and replacing existing facilities.

"We have campuses that are 50 to nearly 80 years old," Songy said. "These schools are not equipped to handle our large student enrollments, nor the technology needs in our classroom today."

Foley & Judell LLP is the district's bond counsel. Fiscal Services Inc. is the financial adviser.

Standard & Poor's recently raised the district's ratings to AA-minus from A-plus when the district sold $7.2 million of bonds to refund GO debt issued in 1997 and 2000. No other agency rates the district's debt.

Betsy Landry, director of business services for the school district, said savings of almost $600,000 had been expected from the refunding.

The improved credit rating resulted in actual savings of $670,000, she said.

Songy said the improved rating reflects the district's conservative fiscal policies.

"The fact that we've gained a greater level of trust in today's market says a tremendous amount about what we're doing in Ascension Parish," Songy said.

Attorney Jerry Osborne of Foley & Judell told the school board that if the voters approve, bonds would be sold in annual tranches of approximately $20 million to avoid the need to increase the property tax rate of 15.08 mills.

Board president Ed Price said the board limited the capital plan to projects that could be financed without increasing the property tax. Voters will be asked to extend the property tax through 2029. The tax is set to expire in 2025.

The 20-year tax was approved by voters in 2005 to support $70 million of GOs for the construction of five new elementary schools. The district sold the third and final tranche from the 2005 authorization in February 2008.

Songy said the older schools will be brought up to the same standards used to build the five new schools. A national accreditation team cited the discrepancies between the district's older and newer facilities in a report in 2007, he said.

"Basically, the accreditation team said all our students should have facilities that support learning," he said. "That's what this plan will do."

The capital program includes a new elementary school, replacing old buildings on the campus of a middle school in Prairieville, and major renovations to an elementary school in Gonzalez.

The district will also add classrooms at existing campuses to eliminate temporary buildings, upgrade the electrical system at older schools, and renovate its data network.

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