Lafayette School Spending

Trustees of the Lafayette Parish School Board Jan. 6 will decide which projects will be financed with $10 million of proceeds from the district’s recent sale of qualified school construction bonds.

The bonds, which are available as part of the federal stimulus program, closed in early December. IberiaBank purchased the QSCBs at an interest rate of 0.8%, and will receive a 6.18% tax credit.

Debt service on the 15-year bonds is about $80,000 a year, or a total of $1.2 million, said Billy Guidry, the district’s chief financial officer.

The Lafayette district sought $30 million of the bonds through the Louisiana Department of Education. The state received a total QSCB allocation of $231.6 million.

The state allotted a total of $100 million of the bonds to the four largest districts in the state, including East Baton Rouge, Orleans, Jefferson, and Caddo parish schools, and limited other districts to $10 million of bonds.

Projects that could be financed include $3.2 million for heating and cooling systems at 18 schools and $4.3 million for maintenance at nine schools.

The district’s debt is rated AA by ­Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.

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