Not a renewal

What the Lincoln Parish School District originally dubbed a “tax renewal” election on April 29 is technically not a tax vote at all.

The school board is seeking the public’s approval to issue $65 million in bonds to finance a capital improvement plan for the Ruston School District No. 1, the bulk of which would pay for construction that would allow Cypress Spring Elementary to be absorbed into Glen View Elementary, and Ruston Elementary into Hillcrest Elementary.

Ever since the consolidation plan first came to light in the days leading up to the board’s Feb. 7 vote to approve the construction, school district officials and board members have referred to the April 29 ballot as a “tax renewal.”

That’s because the total millage rate property owners would pay in a single year won’t increase as a result of the new proposal, Superintendent Ricky Durrett said.

But after further questioning Tuesday, the district’s new informational flyer has dropped the “renewal” term and opted for “bond proposal.”

If approved at the polls, those bonds would be repaid over 20 years by property tax collections. But the school board already has some $28 million in outstanding bonds to be paid off from three previous elections in the Ruston school district stretching back to 2004, according to the board’s 2021-22 audit report.

State law requires the board to pay off all its bonds within one school district by levying only a single tax.

That single property tax is already on the books and has been for decades, levied at various millage rates throughout the years based on what is needed to make payments on the bonds.

A “ yes” or “no” result on the April 29 bond issue vote will not affect the board’s ability to continue levying that tax to pay off existing bonds.

The tax doesn’t expire at a fixed date like other millages do — it runs as long as is needed to pay off all the bonds voters have allowed the school board to issue.

The tax was levied at 17.75 mills in 2022, and regardless of this election’s outcome, it will be levied at that same rate this year, school district financial staff and advisers said Tuesday.

By adding another $65 million in bonds, a “yes” vote would significantly lengthen the number of years the tax will have to be levied for the board to pay its debts.

But even with a “no” vote, the final existing bond won’t mature until 2036.

In other words, the upcoming vote is not a simple “yes” or “no” to a new or existing tax — it’s a “yes” or “no” on allowing the school board to take on more debt, which will keep an existing tax running longer.

Voters in the Ruston district passed three separate bond issues that funded three separate capital improvement plans for those schools and have yet to be fully paid off.

The oldest is a $33 million package from 2004, then $3.4 million in 2011, and finally $21 million in 2013, according to information provided upon request by the school district’s financial office. All four Ruston elementary schools, I.A. Lewis, Ruston Junior High and Ruston High School each received between roughly $ 1- 8 million in upgrades from each of the two larger packages, including seven new classrooms for Cypress Springs in 2004 and two new classrooms for Ruston Elementary in 2013.

The 2011 issue funded the New Tech addition and a new agriculture building at Ruston High.

If voters pass the bond proposal for the new consolidation plan, it’s likely Cypress Springs and Ruston Elementary would close before the school district has finished paying off debts it incurred to improve those schools.

Like these older construction plans, other campuses are also in the mix in the new $65 million proposal.

Some $53 million goes to expanding Glen View and Hillcrest to make them ready to house three additional grades of students and teachers.

Another $5 million is allocated to improving Cypress Springs or another facility to become the school district’s new central office.

Still another $5 million would pay for a new multi- purpose athletic facility at Ruston High that would be heavily utilized by a myriad of sports teams, as well as the band and other groups.

Lastly, some $2.1 million would finance a new grandstand, press box, backstop and fencing at the Ruston High baseball complex.

That’s all in one package, and Ruston district voters will decide on its financing April 29.