CARROLLTON HOLDS SPECIAL HEARING for issuance of $2.95 million of bonds

By Editor | February 3, 2026 |

By Carmen Ensinger

A representative from the bond company Stifel spoke to the Carrollton School Board Monday night, Jan. 26 during a special hearing to discuss the issuance of $2.95 million of bonds for work to be done within the district, including the installation of new bleachers in the high school gym.
Kevin Heid spoke specifically on the bond repayment schedule and the timing for trying to get the bonds issued in time to be on the tax rolls in time for the work to be started this summer.
In addition to the demolition of the current high school bleachers and installation of new bleachers, the work would include the removal of the insulation type substance on the ceiling of the gym, removal of the remaining asbestos flooring in both the high school and grade school, installing new windows in the high school that weren’t replaced in the last remodel to make the building more energy efficient, updating the media center, new LED lighting, tuckpointing and painting around the district buildings and some concrete work plus adding some new classroom doors, mostly at the elementary school.
These improvements are part of the Health Life Safety improvements required by the State and the State must sign off on these improvements. Total cost for this work will be approximately $2.95 million.
“We don’t know for sure what the State will approve yet, but that is the amount that has been submitted,” Heid said. “So, it would not be more than that, or could not be more than that because we have to live with what ever the State approves of.”
Heid said he ran the numbers for 20 years and for 25 years.
“I ran the schedules for a level of debt service for this particular issue if we went for a 20-year schedule it would be about $235,000 a year in repayments,” he said. “Coupled with the bonds that you have outstanding now, that would generate a tax rate of just about 30 cents for as long as the existing bonds are outstanding and then when those go down, the bond rate would go down as well so that would be about a 21-cent increase from the level you are at today.”
Doing the math, the principal and interest over the 20-year period on the $2.95 million would be $4.7 million.
“This is using a pretty conservative estimate for the interest rate,” Heid said. “We don’t know what the rates will be when the bonds are actually issued, but hopefully they come in lower than what we have estimated.”
Going out for 25 years, the repayment scheduled would drop to between $205,000 to $210,000 per year and this would generate a tax, including existing bonds of about 28 cents.
“Again, that would be about not quite a 20-cent increase from where you are in terms of the tax rate today for as long as the existing bonds are outstanding and then it would fall back a little after that,” Heid said. “Total borrowing would be about $5.217 million. So, if we go out longer, the tax rate is lower, but the amount of interest is higher and the total cost is about $500,000 more over that time period.”
Because it is such a large bond issue and for such a long amount of time the bonds would have to go out into the public market place to be sold because it can’t be done in at a local bank going out that long.
“Most banks are not interested in holding things for that long a period of time,” Heid said. “So, the next step, after this hearing, we will get a bond credit rating to help in terms of marketing and selling the bonds in the open market place.”
The district would need to have the State approval by Feb. 9 or 10 in order to potentially price the bonds by the next board meeting on Feb. 23. Which would allow them to file the bonds with the county in time to be on the 2025 tax extension.
If they don’t get the State approval by then, then they will have to back things up in terms of actually issuing the bonds probably until March or April which means it would not then have a 2025 tax levy but would be on the 2026 levy in terms of taxes collected in 2027.
Carrollton Superintendent Jason Bauer said in talking with their contractor, Veregy, they should be able to get all of the work completed over the summer.