WIXLIB

that it was a matter of emergency in his opinion. Mr. Coachman said that he did not think weneeded an expert to tell them that the children are getting sick from the mold. This issomething we already know. Mr. Driggers is in hopes that the Mold Engineer can help tellthem how to solve the problem. He asked Mr. Childs what the mold expert would be able totell them. Mr. Childs stated that they would identify the problem and tell you how to fix it, ifit could be fixed, and the time and cost of a solution if there was one. Mrs. Ohanesian saidshe wanted to know, the air quality and if the building could be fixed as well as the cost of therenovation. Mr. Woods stated that last week they heard from parents, teachers and staff aboutthe school and how they were getting sick when they are at the school. He wanted to knowwhy Mr. Childs did not contact the entire Board to let them know what Ms. Parsons hadrequested. Mr. Childs stated that he did notify the Superintendent so she could talk to Mr.Sharp if she liked. Mr. Childs said he was just making a preliminary inquiry; he was notmaking any decisions for the district. Mr. Childs said he guessed the question he was askingwas did the Board consider this to be some matter of urgency. Mr. Coachman said they knewBlenheim had mold and Wallace had mold when they tore them down and he doesn’t see thedifference. Mrs. Ohanesian thinks we owe to the public to get this information onBennettsville Intermediate School; Mrs. Ohanesian then made a motion that a Mold Engineerbe hired under exigent circumstances not to be charged more than 5000.00 at this time and inaddition that we get a timely report stating what is wrong, can it be fixed, how long it wouldtake to fix it and what the cost will be. The motion was seconded by Mr. Driggers. The floorwas open to discussion. Ms. Fleming spoke up stating that she wanted to thank the teachersfor coming out last week and letting the Board know what they endured every day. She feelsthat when you have teachers coming and standing up for students and themselves she has torespect that and believe what they told the Board. Dr. Tillar shared with the Board thatAttorney Childs had shared Mr. Sharp’s information with her and that she told him she wouldshare it with the Board and let them give direction on which way they wanted to go with that.Mr. Driggers shared that he knew that Bennettsville Intermediate School had problems butthey needed to be addressed in the most economical way possible. He shared that he haspeople come up to him stating they don’t want their children going to the high school and hefeels that for the public, the Board should look at every avenue before making any decisions.Mr. Branch stated he obviously doesn’t want any kids or staff in a building that has mold in it;he said he would like to look at all options and see what an expert has to say about it. Mr.Coachman stated that he didn’t understand the concerns of placing the kids at the high schoolwhen the Academy has all grades attending school together and there has never been aproblem. He shared that he was confident the administration would make sure the childrenwere separated and safe. He stated he had lost a grandchild to breathing problems and heknows mold can cause that issue in children with breathing issues so as a Board member hecouldn’t fathom placing someone else’s child in a dangerous situation. He feels it is best tomove children to a safer environment because he doesn’t believe that building is safe and hedoesn’t think anyone should be in it. Ms. Parson stated that she likes to make decisions bydoing homework and by using facts. She said she also had a pump and there had been timeswhen she had bronchitis more than three times like one of the staff stated. People get sick,they have allergies. Around in this neighborhood lots of people have allergies. She stated thatwhen we spend big bucks to build a new school based on mass hysteria and someone sayingpeople are getting sick, people get sick all over the place. She said she would like to have thefacts an engineer could give them and make an educated decision not one based on masshysteria. Mr. Norton said he was confused, he believes that either way the Board votes theyare going to be criticized one way or the other. I think if the public sees that the Board hasgone out of its way to find experts who have no dog in this fight and no political interest toget information it can make a difference. He agrees that it is a good decision to have anengineer look at Bennettsville Intermediate School. Mrs. Ohanesian called for the question,the motion carried 5 -3, Mrs. Bright was absent.Finance Report from Mrs. Heizer and Mr. Gallagher: Frannie Heizer from McNair LawFirm presented information of the outstanding debt for Marlboro County School District. Theinformation presented is as follows.3

On June 7, 2017, SCAGO Educational Facilities Corporation for Marlboro County SchoolDistrict issued a 10,000,000 Installment Purchase Revenue Bonds Series 2007, for thepurpose of the acquisition, construction, renovation and equipping of new educationalfacilities and the improvement and renovation of certain existing educational facilities. Thefinal maturity date of the non-refunded portion of these bonds is December1, 2031. Thesebonds are issued by non-profit corporation on behalf of the School District. Payments forthese bonds are made twice a year through the issuance of general obligation bonds throughthe SCAGO General Obligation Bonds Program.On July 22, 2010 the School District issued 18,000,000Qualified School ConstructionBonds, Taxable Series 2010A for the purpose of funding the construction and equipping of anew school facility as approved in a referendum held in the School District November 4,2018. The final maturity date for these bonds is June 1, 2025. The American Recovery andReinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of2010 authorized the School District to issue taxable bonds known as “qualified schoolconstruction bonds,” and to receive payments from the federal government equal to 100% ofthe interest payable on the Bonds.On September 16, 2010, the School District issued 7,910,000 Installment PurchaseRefunding Revenue Bonds which refunded 7,455,000 of the 2007 Installment PurchaseRevenue Bonds and paid the cost of issuance. The final maturity date for these bonds isDecember 1, 2031.On July 10, 2013, the School District executed and delivered an Acquisition, Use and SecurityAgreement with Branch Baking and Trust Company in the amount of 3,590,000, theproceeds of which were used to refund the School District 3,590,000 Special ObligationBonds, Taxable Series 2010 dated December 16, 2010, the proceeds of which were used forthe acquisition and installment of equipment. Build America Bonds were another type of debtauthorized as part of ARRA. One of the primary reasons for local government to issue BuildAmerica Bonds was that the Federal Government would pay an interest payment subsidy of35% of the payment. As a result of Federal sequestration, the interest rate subsidy decreasedand due to the redemption provisions, these types of bonds could be refunded when theinterest rate subsidy became less than 35% of the payment. Therefore the School Districtrefunded the Special Obligation Bonds with the delivery of the Acquisition Use and SecurityAgreement. By refunding these bonds, the bonds are now tax-exempt bonds.On June 5, 2014, the School District issued 20,000,000 General Obligation Bonds, theproceeds of which were used to retire at maturity the School District’s 3,000,000 GeneralObligation Bond Anticipation Note, Series 2013, dated June 6, 2013 and a portion of thereferendum-approved project. The proceeds of the Bond Anticipation Note were also used tofund a portion of the project approved by the referendum held in the School District onNovember 6, 2012. The final maturity date of these bonds is March 1, 2039. Simultaneouslywith the approval of the general obligation bonds, a sales and use tax was also approved in thereferendum on November 6, 2012. The proceeds of the sales and use tax are used for debtservice on these bonds.The School District issues a general obligation bond in the Spring and Fall through the SouthCarolina Association of Governmental Organizations (SCAGO) to pay the June 1 andDecember 1 payments on the installment purchase revenue bonds, installment purchaserefunding revenue bond, and special obligation bonds. In order to do this the Board adopts aresolution in the Fall authorizing a sufficient amount of bonds to pay current fiscal yearpayments which are due on December 1, and the following June 1. On May 17, the SchoolDistrict will issue a 177,000 general obligation bond to make the June 1, 2017 interestpayments on the outstanding installment purchase revenue bonds and the installment purchaserefunding revenue bonds. The next payment due on the Acquisition Use and SecurityAgreement will be made from the Fall of 2017 SCAGO General Obligation Bond Programalong with the December 1, 2017 payments on the installment purchase revenue bonds andthe installment purchase refunding revenue bonds.Mr. Mike Gallagher of Compass Municipal Advisors gave financial information to the Boardexplaining the details of the district’s debt and informed them of some things they can do toinsure continued financial security. Mr. Gallagher explained that the historical bond issues4

that Ms. Heizer spoke about are known as the debt capsule. He informed the district that therewas a minimal amount of 60,000 left on the 2007 Installment Purchase Revenue Bond due in2031, and that the School District may want to consider paying that off this year when theyissue the general obligation bond. The School District is in good position with the QSCB eventhough the Government isn’t paying the full subsidy. The 2010 Bonds are not payable until2020. His company will monitor these and let the School District know when it would be agood time to refinance them. The 2014 Bonds are not payable until March 2024 and they donot require any action in the immediate future. The 2017A issuance that will be closing laterin the week will cover the School District’s June 1 st payment. Mr. Gallagher gave a graphicalrepresentation to the Board that contained all the School District’s payments, historically,what is estimated and what is obligated going forward. At the top of the columns on the graphthere are numbers that correlate with the millage rate for each of those years. He pointed outthat the debt service went up between 2014 and 2015 but the millage stayed the same and thatis where the sales tax came into play. The sales tax revenue resized it to make sure there wasnot a tax increase associated with the issuance of those 2014B bond issues.Mr. Gallagher explained that on the handouts he gave the Board it showed a blue area thatstated Going Into the Future and then he explained that each year 325,000 is factored into thebudget for ongoing capitol maintenance and technology. This number could increase ordecrease depending on what the desired millage is. The next handout is what Mr. Gallaghercalled the math behind the graph, which shows the aggregate principal and interest payments.The graph also included information for the Installment Revenue Bonds, acquisitionagreement, the QSCB and 14B Bond Issues that were approved by the referendum. Column Hon the graph gave information on the 2017A which the district was getting ready to use tomake the installment payments on the purchase revenue bonds or the acquisition agreement.He informed the Board that the graph shows the district staying around or at the 33 mil. target.The district will recei

Cable, The Laurinburg Exchange, The Morning News, The Community Times, WEGX-FM, WLMC, WEWO/WAZZ and Chesterfield County Shopper. C. Approval of Agenda: Mrs. Ohanesian made a motion to amend the agenda to include a report to the public, Board, and Dist