The Warren County School District's board of directors is one step closer to possibly voting on a low-to-zero-interest loan for school renovations.
During an emergency school board meeting Tuesday to discuss a blown transformer at the Warren County Career Center, district solicitor Chris Byham said that a legal notice which will be published in Thursday's Times Observer will officially announce the possible adoption of a QZAB (Qualified Zone Academy Bond) loan.
School board members had a Sept. 29 deadline to vote on a QZAB loan, which would go towards renovations at Eisenhower Middle/High School and Beaty-Warren Middle School.
Byham said the item will appear on the agenda for the school board's special meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26. However, Byham said the placement of the item on the agenda doesn't mean a vote is required.
"It will be on the agenda on the 26th; if the board wants to do something with it it can," he said. "If not, that's certainly okay, too, but it just leaves the door open for QZAB to at least be considered."
The possible vote comes at the same time the school board plans to sit down with members of a group pushing to open a charter school in the northern attendance area.
If the Eisenhower Charter School were to open for the 2012-13 school year, QZAB funding for the Eisenhower building would be moot, school board President Arthur Stewart has stated.
On Tuesday, board member John Grant further questioned QZAB in the midst of charter school talks. "Will there be a resolution for each QZAB project?" Grant asked.
"The way it is going to be prepared is there will be one resolution," Byham said, "but if during the course of the meeting if the board so desired that resolution can be amended. For example, I'm assuming it's going to be brought forward to include both Beaty and Eisenhower at a certain dollar figure. But the board can certainly amend that resolution if you so desire to include only Beaty or only Eisenhower."
According to the school district's legal notice, $51,907,000 in QZAB loans could be approved for renovation projects. All, or portions of that amount, can be accepted by the school board.