By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
On July 26, Jack Truemper, vice president of Stephens Inc. for public finance, will sell about $65 million worth of bonds authorized last month by Pulaski County Special School District patrons.
The money will pay for a new Sylvan Hills High School and reconfigure that campus.
The existing school, built for an enrollment of 880 students, is “bursting at the seams,” PCSSD Superintendent Jerry Guess has said.
The current enrollment is about 1,450 and the old North-wood Middle School building had to be pressed into service as a freshman academy.
By a 2-1 margin, voters agreed on June 13 to extend the existing 40.7-mill property tax for an additional 17 years.
A new and reconfigured Sylvan Hills High School could be ready for occupancy in fall 2019.
The first legal notice of the bond sale will be published next Wednesday and the bond sale will be at 10 a.m. July 26, according to Linda Remele, PCSSD school board president.
“We have to wait until July 26 in case there will be a challenge to the bond election,” she said.
In addition, the district will refinance an existing bond at a better interest rate, for a net gain of about $1.1 million, Remele explained.
The first and second notices for the refinance have already been published with the bond sale set for Tuesday, she said.
Meanwhile, WER Architects continues working on plans for the new high school.
