Woodlawn Approves Buying School Buses

WOODLAWN - The Woodlawn School Board approved a new bond issue to buy six school buses, and accepted a bid to make flooring improvements to the home side football bleachers during Monday night's regular monthly meeting.Woodlawn High School principal T.J. Hill, who also serves as the district's transportation director, told the board that the lease prices for new school buses has risen to the point that it was now more practical to buy the buses rather than lease them.Over the past five years, Hill said the cost for leasing six school buses has risen from about $88,000 per year to about $146,000 this past year. In comparison, he said it would cost the district about $110,000 per year to make payments on buying those same buses.Hill explained that the district currently owns five buses outright. Of those, he said only two were in good enough condition to be used on short routes. His proposal was to buy two of the existing lease buses that are coming off three-year leases, and then buy four more that will come off lease in October. In addition, the district would also buy a new bus outright. Overall, Hill said none of the buses would be older than three years old.To achieve that, he said the district would need a $635,000 loan, which would have an annual payment of about $110,000 over a seven-year term. The money saved annually over to that term could be used to buy one new school bus each year over a regular cycle.Jason Holsclaw of Stephens, Inc., the district's financial adviser, was at the meeting to present a "non-bonded debt" proposal to the board. He explained a non-bonded debt is essentially like a loan, and is not considered to be the same as a bonded debt often used for capital improvements.Holsclaw said he put out the bond bid to eight local banks, and four came back with bids. Simmons Bank and Connect Bank had the lowest interest rate at 5.25 percent. Holsclaw they held a random drawing, and Simmons was selected a...