Signs like this one at Brownell Middle School in Grosse Pointe Farms are installed throughout the Grosse Pointe Public School System to explain sinking fund millage requirements and show what sinking funds have been used for in the past. displayed in the building.
Photo credit: K. Michelle Moran
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GROSS POINTE/HARPER WOODS — With aging buildings and significant infrastructure needs, Grosse Pointe Public School System officials announced this fall that they will be making $3 million over 10 years to cover some of those expenses. Seeks voter approval for dollar sinking fund levy.
The current five-year, $1 million levy expires in December 2024. That miscellaneous fee generates about $3.5 million a year, but the Grosse Pointe School Board is requesting an even larger miscellaneous fee this time because a 2022 capital assessment report found the district needed it. I chose that. More than $252 million in improvements were made. The $3 million levy is expected to generate $11.1 million in the first year.
Sinking funds are different from bonds. That’s because, as the district explained in its millage pamphlet, sinking funds “require no additional debt service costs.”
In GPPSS, sinking funds are primarily used for facility needs such as parking, building repairs, masonry, windows, play areas, new boilers, and roofs.
“Sinking funds cannot be used for salaries. … They cannot be used for furniture,” GPPSS Superintendent Andrea Tuttle said at the July 16 Grosse Pointe School Board meeting.
The district has a list of projects it would like to complete using sinking fund funds, but the list could change if other more pressing needs arise, Tuttle said.
“That happens all too often in school districts, where unforeseen emergencies result in funds being diverted (elsewhere),” Tuttle said July 16.
Many of the school buildings are historic, but as Tuttle says, “stately facilities are expensive to maintain.”
Future projects that district officials hope to tackle with sinking fund funds include security enhancements, roofs, new building fire alarm systems, district vehicles, new coolers/rooftop heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units. Included. Future roofing is estimated to cost $12.8 million, and the chiller/HVAC unit will cost an additional $6 million. Tuttle said the latter figure does not include district-wide air conditioning and would be much higher.
There are restrictions on the sinking fund, but two items have been added for use.
“The sinking fund allows us to put technology and transportation in there,” Chris Stanley, executive director of learning technology and strategic relationships, told the board on Aug. 27. .
But Tuttle said money raised from the 2024 Sinking Fund cannot be used for technology or transportation, and those uses would only come from the 2025 Sinking Fund if approved.
Mr Stanley said the technology covered a wide range of areas including high-speed internet, networks, flat panels and safety and security systems.
“Almost everything that gets plugged in is technology,” Stanley says. “It’s much more than a laptop.”
And this is an ongoing expense because “technology needs to be continually updated,” Stanley said.
He said the digitization of tests across the state is progressing, and tests such as the SAT and Preliminary SAT (PSAT) are now also digital.
Stanley said the district is considering updating its network, which was last done in 2020.
Although GPPSS does not provide buses to transport students to and from school, it does have transportation needs such as transporting student-athletes to away games and transporting students to field trips.
District officials say if the mill fails, they will have to use the general fund to cover these capital needs, which would siphon money from other district programs and services. states.
For the owner of a home with a market value of $500,000 and a taxable value of $250,000, approved sinking fund mileage would cost $750 per year. The owner of a home with a market value of $300,000 and a taxable value of $150,000 would pay $450 annually.
If this millet is approved, it will be in operation until 2034.
More information about sinking fund millages can be found on the district’s website at www.gpschools.org.
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