Tecumseh school board rescinds pool bond proposal, now looking at sinking fund millage

TECUMSEH — It's on to Plan B as the Tecumseh Board of Education looks for a way to pay for repairs to the community pool building.

After finding out that the scope of work planned to repair the corroded steel structure holding up the Tecumseh Memorial Community Pool's roof largely does not qualify for bond funding, the board on Monday voted 7-0 to rescind its decision on April 22 to ask voters to approve a millage to pay for bonds that would have been sold to fund the $2.5 million in repairs.

Instead, the board is now considering asking voters to approve a millage for a sinking fund. State law allows school districts to ask voters to establish a property tax of up to 3 mills for a sinking fund, which can then be used for a variety of capital improvements, such as building construction or repair, buying buses and some technology purchases.

The board members on Monday discussed what a sinking fund can be used for and how much of a millage they might request. They decided to continue the discussion at their next meeting on Monday, May 20, when district operations director Joshua Mattison could give them a list of additional projects throughout the district that could be covered by a sinking fund over the next few years.

The information about the pool work not qualifying for bond financing was provided during a meeting between district officials and representatives of the district's financial consultants, PFM, and legal counsel, Thrun Law Firm, board secretary Tim Simpson said Monday in providing the budget committee report.

The attorney from "Thrun is concerned that the bond will not work for the pool," Simpson said. "The biggest reason is he feels a lot of the things are repairs and maintenance."

Bonds cannot be used to pay for repairs or maintenance, the district was told.

"The lawyer was pretty adamant about painting and sandblasting, that's usually maintenance," board president Tony Rebottaro said.

Part of the proposed work to repair the roof involves sandblasting, sealing and coating the steel structure.

"The bond, according to our lawyers, … they think that's a bad idea," Rebottaro said, "Unfortunately, the state will not tell us until we get audited that that was a bad idea."

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In the past, school districts could submit a bond proposal to the state Treasury Department to find out if it qualified, Simpson said.

"They don't do that anymore," he said, which means that figuring out if something qualifies for bond financing is "kind of like reading tea leaves."

"Everything we've got in the proposal, we could say it's not maintenance, we're improving the site. That's allowed," Simpson said.

But because the state could consider the work to be repairs when it would audit the bond financing, he said, the attorney at Thrun is "advising that we don't go down that road."

The attorney recommended pursuing a sinking fund, Simpson said, because it can pay for repairs. The district's auditors and engineering firm have conferred and have decided the pool project would be repairs and not maintenance.

A sinking fund millage proposal would ask voters to approve the tax for a certain number of years. The district could then ask voters to renew it when it is about to expire. The ballot proposal's wording would not list specific projects, Superintendent Rick Hilderley said, but in the campaign for the millage, voters could be told how the district intends to use it.

Some school districts in Lenawee County have sinking fund millages including Blissfield, Britton Deerfield and Sand Creek.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Tecumseh school board rescinds pool bond proposal