COSTA MESA, NEWPORT BEACH : Board Creates Agency to Issue School Bonds
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The Newport-Mesa Unified School District board has created a separate public agency to issue more than $5 million in bonds to pay for installing a new heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system at Corona del Mar High School and to build a new district headquarters.
The Newport-Mesa Unified School District Public Financing Authority will issue and oversee certificates of participation, a type of bond that may be issued without voter approval or public hearings.
Other types of bonds would take nine to 14 months to issue because of public hearing requirements or the need for a ballot question. Director of Finance Michael Fine said. He denied the district is “trying to circumvent the public.”
The authority will issue the certificates for $5.2 million to $5.5 million--depending on prevailing interest rates--between now and Thanksgiving, Fine said.
The money will be paid back over 10 to 15 years, depending on the deal the district is able to get. The money to repay the certificates will come from lease income from district properties, he said. The headquarters, which will be called the Education Center, will be built at Baker and Bear streets in Costa Mesa at a cost of $3.8 million. The administration is currently housed in aging, temporary Army bungalows at a corner of Newport Harbor High School.
Also at the meeting Tuesday, the board authorized completion and payment of $1.26 million for the Corona del Mar High School air-conditioning system, which was overhauled in the summer. That portion of the bonds will be paid back entirely from developer fees, Fine said.
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