Friday, Jul. 18, 2008

New high school plans advance after city sells property to district

July 1 bond sale considered successful

The new high school is one step closer to completion now that the school district has had a successful bond sale.

Superintendent Steve Tietjen said the Los Baños Unified School District sold $34 million out of the $44 million bond sale that took place July 1.

According to a memo from Adam Bauer, senior vice president of Fieldman Rolapp and Associates, the school district's financial adviser, the bonds received four bids with UBS Securities LLC submitting the winning bid at an interest of 4.757137 percent.

What this means according to Tietjen is "less cost for local taxpayers."

West Contra Costa Unified School District was the only other school district selling bonds, Los Baños earned a better interest rate than the Bay Area district did.

"Essentially the difference is that the Los Baños Unified School District is considered more fiscally (sound)," Tietjen said. "We don't have a lot of debt and as a school district we were more credit worthy."

The sale of the bonds was not the only turn of events in regards to the new high school.

The board of education voted on an action item that will finalize the sale of the 68-acre property on Ward Road and Snow Goose Drive, the proposed location of the high school.

Once the school district has the title to the property they can enter into a contract to build the school with a general contractor through the lease-lease back process. The Los Baños City Council Wednesday night voted unanimously to sell the property to the district.

Tietjen said the value of the property was considerably low compared to a couple years ago.

The cost was $6.8 million instead of the $13 million they had expected.

He said the cheaper price came with mixed emotions since the state will reimburse the district less money.

The district plans to use mitigation fee money to purchase the property.

Furthermore the city and the school district are in the process of entering into a joint-use agreement that will allow the city and its residents use of the new campus' amenities.

Enterprise reporter Minerva Perez can be reached by phone at (209)388-6565.