SHELBY — Funding has been secured for the construction of a new athletic complex on the Shelby City School District campus.
At Monday night’s meeting, the Shelby Board of Education approved the completion of $4 million in Certificates of Participation, which will function as a lease-purchase agreement with the district renting the improvements from a bank or other third party.
“That means our money is in the bank,” said Asst. Supt. Paul Walker. “The sale was completed, all the securities were sold and the board simply approved the completion of that transaction.”
This means the district is now able to move forward with the project by looking for contractors to start construction. Supt. Tim Tarvin forecasts ground will be broken next summer, with an estimated completion date of August 2023.
The district’s financial advisor, David Conley of Rockmill Financial Consulting, recommended at a special meeting on Feb. 22 the board move forward with the project sooner rather than later in order to capture the lowest interest rate in financing.
In addition, a reduced interest rate on Shelby’s Pre-K through eighth grade facility project saved the district $4 million to put towards the athletic complex project.
“Selling Certificates of Participation means the school district will shoulder the entire payments — they will not be passed on as an additional tax to the taxpayers,” Tarvin said.
The athletic complex project will include a turf field, additional seating, and a pedestrian plaza. It will also refurbish the existing eight tennis courts and softball field, relocate the baseball field to just north of the high school’s auxiliary gym to improve traffic flow, and add hundreds of new parking spaces.
In other news, the board approved the hiring of Susan Snyder as the new principal for Dowds Elementary School. Snyder will replace Kristin Kaple-Jones, who is the new superintendent of the Monroeville Local Schools.
Kaple-Jones has been principal at Dowds Elementary in Shelby for the past 10 years. Prior to that, she taught high school English for eight years at Shelby High School.
The board also approved the hiring of Levi Myers as the new VoAg instructor at Shelby Middle School and Shelby High School. Myers will be the first VoAg instructor in history to serve at the middle school level.
