SVVSD school board agrees to early bond redemption, saving on interest
Sep. 29—The St. Vrain Valley school board on Wednesday agreed to an early redemption of $34.7 million in capital construction bonds that were issued in 2012.
The bonds had an original payment schedule of 12 years, with the final payment scheduled for December 2024. District officials said there's enough money in reserve in the bond redemption fund to redeem them early at the end of October and save about $767,000 in interest.
Superintendent Don Haddad also shared that the school district is continuing to look at asking voters to approve another capital construction bond in November 2024 to pay for renovations and for new schools needed because of enrollment growth.
The district's last bond issue of $260.3 million was approved by voters in 2016.
In other business, the board heard a report on achievement and approved accreditation recommendations for schools as required by the state. The school rating categories used in the accreditation system are, from lowest to highest, turnaround, priority improvement, improvement and performance.
Only one St. Vrain school — Longmont's Longs Peak Middle School — isn't in the top two categories. As a school in the turnaround category, Longs Peak will receive extra support from the school district, officials said.
Because the state considers this a transition year, schools such as Longs Peak with low ratings will have until next year to improve before they're placed on the accountability clock. Once on the accountability clock, schools face state sanctions if they do not improve after five consecutive years.
Five schools didn't have enough achievement data to receive a rating, generally because too few students took the state tests. Those schools are Highlands Elementary, New Meridian High School, St. Vrain Community Montessori School, St. Vrain LaunchED Virtual Academy and St. Vrain Virtual High School.
The ratings are based mainly on achievement on statewide tests and growth from year to year on language arts and math tests. At high schools, ratings also include graduation and dropout rates and college entrance exam scores. This year was the first full administration of the statewide tests since 2019.
