Unpretty

Seeing that the district is quietly working towards presenting a plan to build yet another elementary school (to the tune of $18-22M), we felt it was long overdue to take a look at our debt picture.  That is what people do before planning  big purchase, right????

Pick up any newspaper or magazine and it won't be long before you see what folks all over the country are doing during this 3 year (and counting) downturn in the economy.  They're paying down their debt and not creating new debt.   Sounds like a solid plan...right?  Nope, at least not in Sun Prairie.  The FTT Committee will be reviewing APL population estimates this coming Monday, and that will be the first shot fired in a battle to build an 8th elementary school.  APL estimates are ALWAYS a prelude to "time to build".

Suppose we could get
an elementary school cheap from China?

In all those many pages of the school district's Annual Meeting booklet, what you probably did not see (and neither Jim McCourt nor Phil Frei pointed out in any of their slides) was any reference to the total outstanding (and not in a good way) debt.  Sure...we have a (gulp) nice Taj Mah High School to go with two palatial elementary schools.

But way back on page 39 of the Annual Meeting booklet is the sum total of our debt: $171,349,618 as of  October 2011.  Unfortunately, DPI data only show the debt picture as of June 30, 2010, at which time the debt was $175,456,911. How appropriate that the figure ends in "911", because we think that this much debt constitutes an emergency.

When you look at DPI debt data for all 424 districts, Sun Prairie ranks #2 in total debt (only Milwaukee has more!!!), #8 in total allowable debt%, and #6 in debt-to-value percent.  Those aren't exactly the areas in which we wish to be leaders, folks.  Sure, these schools look McDreamy, but we're mortgaging the futures of our residents for bricks and mortar.  Last time we checked, the bricks aren't the ones teaching our kids.  We also recently heard that the wonderful geothermal system we put in the first of the new schools (Horizon 5-6 years back) is aging.  The system depends on a large number of pumps and these have started to fail.  Have we budgeted (or even talked about budgeting) how much that replacement cost will be?

By State Statute, the Sun Prairie Area School District is able to borrow up to 10% of its equalized

Debt payments due over the next 17 years
(from the 2011-12 SPASD Annual Meeting Book)

value. The 2010 equalized value was $3,858,367,621; therefore, the district could borrow an
additional $214,487,144 ($385,836,762 - $171,349,618).

Do the math folks, as the graphic from the 2011-12 Annual Meeting Book shows, for each of the next 17 years we will be paying at least $10.2M and as much as $16.1M in taxes just to pay down this debt.  Add it all up and we'll be paying a little over $225 MEELYUN DOLLARS for a debt which currently stands at $171.5M.  That means we'll be paying INTEREST of almost $54 MILLION DOLLARS during that time.  We may have gotten great bond rates, but any way you slice it, it's costing us 31.5% of the principal.

Maybe...just maybe... we need to be a tad more creative before we jump to spending another $18-22M on a third palatial elementary school.

So damn unpretty
I'll make you feel unpretty too
--TLC "Unpretty"