Bonding

Pioneer Press Mon, 05 May 2008 23:18:27 -0600
St. Paul Schools / District changing bonding process

For the first time in several years, St. Paul schools won't be submitting individual "wish lists" this spring for pieces of the district's $15 million in capital bonding authority. Instead, the administration and a citizens' advisory committee are recommending to the school board this afternoon that the list of capital projects for 2008-09 be drawn up by district staff. "I want it to be a districtwide process," said Hitesh Haria, the district's chief operations officer. The district is making an inventory of the condition of its facilities and the requirements of state and other mandates, Haria said. Those studies should be done within a year, and they will provide baseline data for a new bonding process for 2009-10, he said. In the meantime, administrators want to take a year off from the crush of individual building requests. Last year, there were requests for more than $200 million worth of projects, Haria said, competing for $15 million in available funding. That's not unusual, and some requests become the subject of lobbying that some have perceived as unfair. For 2008-09, Haria would like to focus on technology upgrades that get buildings ready for online testing. That might take around a third of the $15 million, he said.

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